How do custody arrangements affect child support obligations?

When one parent is awarded sole legal or physical custody in a divorce, the other parent typically is required to fulfill his or her child support obligation by making payments to the custodial parent. (The custodial parent meets this support obligation through the custody itself.) When parents are awarded joint physical custody in a divorce, their support obligations are based on how much money each parent earns and the percentage of time the child spends with each parent.

How do courts calculate child support?

According to the federal Child Support Enforcement Act, each state has developed guidelines to calculate a range of child support to be paid, based on the parents' respective incomes and expenses. These guidelines vary considerably from state to state, which means that in virtually identical situations the child support ordered in one state may be far more or less than that ordered in another state. Some states allow their judges considerable leeway in setting the actual amount, as long as the general state guidelines are followed. Others have very strict guidelines that leave the judges very little leeway.

Regardless of how much latitude judges are given, the guidelines in effect in most states specify factors that must be considered in determining who pays how much child support. These factors usually include:

• the needs of the child -- including health insurance, education, day care, and special needs
• the income and needs of the custodial parent
• the paying parent's ability to pay, and
• the child's standard of living before divorce or separation.

Courts often require each divorcing spouse to fill out a financial statement to provide a complete picture of the parents' financial situations before making a decision on child support. In the financial statement, the spouse must detail his or her monthly income and expenses.

When a court sets child support, it often considers the family's pre-divorce standard of living and attempts to continue this standard for the children, if feasible. However, courts are aware of the difficulty of maintaining two households on the income that formerly supported one home. Maintenance of the same standard of living is therefore more of a goal than a guarantee.

Will the court consider high living expenses such as loan payments and income taxes when determining one's ability to pay child support?

A court looks at the payer's gross income from all sources, less any mandatory deductions (income taxes, Social Security, health care, and mandatory union dues). The result is the payer's net income.

In most states, deductions for credit union payments, wage attachments, and so on are not subtracted when calculating net income. For example, John may make $2,000 per month, and his net income is $1,500 after income tax, Social Security, unemployment insurance benefits, and other government deductions. But the fact that $300 more is withheld to pay a credit union loan does not further reduce his net income for the court's purposes. The reason for this rule is that the law considers support payments a higher priority than other types of debts.

In some states the court may take into account the reasonable expenses incurred by the paying spouse for his or her own basic necessities of life (such as rent or mortgage, food, clothing, and health care). However, courts typically do not allow expenses such as school expenses, dining out, and entertainment to influence their support determination. The theory is that family support should come before these types of personal expenses. And, in a growing number of states, the expenses of the paying spouse are irrelevant.

If you are already paying child support for children from another marriage, some states allow you to deduct the amount of child support you pay for other children from your net income figure. If you are asked to complete a financial statement, be sure to include this expense.