An introduction to how child support is calculated in a divorce involving children.
Generally speaking, child support is determined by guidelines mandated by the state or province where the family resides. The major factors taken into consideration are:
- The age of the child or children
- The number of children in the family
- The custody arrangements for the child or children
- The income of each spouse.
Your lawyer or financial professional will enter your information into software, which supplies a recommendation for the base level of child support. If you and your ex are trying to set an amount yourselves, you should know that you cannot negotiate below guideline amounts – although parents can, and do, negotiate upwards. If you’re looking to get a ballpark estimate of child support amounts, you can find free child-support calculators on many provincial or state websites.
Canadian parents can look up the base level of child support on the official tables here: http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/fl-df/child-enfant/look-rech.asp. Parents can access a step-by-step guide to calculating child support payments for their province or territory here: http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/fl-lf/child-enfant/guide/index.html
It’s important to note that the child support guidelines in the US and in Canada do not take the child’s actual expenses into consideration. For example, the cost of summer camp, private tutoring, sports or music lessons, extracurricular activities, private school tuition, and college funding are not factored into the guidelines. These are usually known as “special expenses”, and they are often the source of bitter arguments between the parents.
Child custody arrangements will also have an impact on child support. If the children reside with Parent A more than 60% of the time, and with Parent B less than 40% of the time, Parent B will usually end up paying Parent A the full guideline amount of child support. However, the guideline amounts are intended for children who reside primarily with one parent, so if both parents enjoy a similar income, and each has the children living with him/her approximately half the time, then there may be no child support payable by either one.
This can get very complicated when a couple has two or more children, and each parent has primary physical custody of at least one child. For example, after divorce, Tom’s oldest child lives with him while the two youngest children live with his ex-wife, Sally. In theory, Tom would owe child support to Sally for the two children who are living with her, and Sally would owe child support to Tom for the eldest child, who is living with him. You should definitely speak to a lawyer or a divorce financial advisor if your custody situation will be complicated.
Finally, you should also know that child support payments are non-taxable income to the person receiving them and are not tax-deductible by the person paying them. This is different from spousal support, which is generally taxable to the recipient and deductible by the payor.
For more information about child support and divorce, please go to www.divorcemag.com/child-support.
