California’s guidelines for calculating child support are complicated, but California child support calculators have standardized the process and made it easier to calculate guideline child support.
What is guideline child support?
Guideline child support is the amount of child support that the state and federal governments believe a child should receive in light of the parents’ incomes and other relevant factors. The guideline child support standard applies to parents of all income brackets and socio-economic classes.
If you earn $100,000 or $1,000,000 annually, the first step to determine the level of child support you may pay or receive is to calculate guideline child support.
California’s child support guidelines comply with Federal law, and are described in California Family Code sections 4050 – 4076. For the mathematically inclined, the California’s child support formula is K[HN – (H%)(TN)]. The formula keys are in California Family Code section 4055. For the rest of us, the California Superior Court approved child support calculator most lawyers, judges, and mediators use is the DissoMaster™ Program.
The California Department of Child Support Services also has an online calculator that curious and self-representing parents can use and the California Department of Child Support Services Guideline Child Support Calculator User Guide explains the relevant facts and figures to consider. It’s a user guide for the Department’s online calculator, but the instructions, explanations, and step-by-step process to calculate child support apply almost equally to the DissoMaster™ Program.
So, how does this technical stuff work in the real world of divorce?
In the real world, you may calculate child support in California on a number of different occasions in the divorce process and under very different circumstances. But the process usually goes something like this.
- The decision to divorce is made and one or both spouses move into separate homes
- A formal or informal child custody and/or visitation schedule is established
- One spouse earns more than the other spouse who needs help paying the child’s expenses while in his/her custody or care
- Financial records like personal income tax returns, mortgage statements, property tax records, pay stubs, account statements, Income and Expense Declarations and Schedules of Assets and Debts are exchanged.
- One or both spouses’ attorneys put the financial and other requisite information into the support program, which calculates monthly or annual guideline child support for each minor or special needs child.
- The spouses’ attorneys compare their computer reports and discuss any factors that may be changed or should be taken into consideration in light of the circumstances of the case
- If the spouses and their attorneys agree that the correct variables were used and the support calculated is acceptable, a written agreement is signed and filed with the Court. Once signed by a Judge, the agreement, which is usually entitled “Stipulation”, becomes a legally binding child support order. The child support amount and order may remain in effect and unchanged until the child no longer qualifies to receive child support or, as discussed below, it may be modified a number of times for various reasons.
- If the spouses and their attorneys cannot reach a child support agreement, the spouse seeking support files a Request for Order (motion) with the court, written arguments are exchanged, a hearing follows and a Judge makes a ruling that becomes the child support order.
Here is another equally common but very different way that child support is calculated in amicable California divorces.
- The decision to divorce is made and one or both spouses move into separate homes
- A formal or informal child custody and/or visitation schedule is established
- One spouse earns more than the other spouse who needs help paying the child’s expenses while in his/her custody or care
- The spouse who earns more pays the other spouse’s expenses (e.g. medical bills, rent, credit card bills), deposits money into a checking account whenever funds are needed or gives the other spouse an agreeable monthly sum that is based on the actual needs and abilities of the spouses and not the guidelines. These spouses may or may not have written agreements formalizing the amount to be paid or the dates when the child support payments will be made or expenses paid.
In acrimonious cases, child custody hearings, vocational evaluations, and forensic accountings can slow the process down and drive the costs up.
Which facts determine guideline child support? The primary factors are:
- Timeshare (the amount of time each parent spends with the child)
- Income from all sources
- Taxes and tax filing status
- Insurance Costs
- Child care or special needs of the children
- Deductions and credits
- Various other factors in unusual cases
Because each spouse and divorce is unique, there may be any number of additional variables that may be considered when calculating guideline child support including, but not limited to these.
- A high income earning spouse
- A spouse’s self employment
- A spouse’s unemployment but significant asset base from which support can be paid
- A spouse’s volitional unemployment or underemployment
- A spouse is a trust fund beneficiary
- A spouse’s disability, whether temporary or permanent
- A disabled or special needs child
- Divorcing spouses continue living in one home
How long does child support last?
Generally speaking, both parents are required to support their child to the best of their abilities until the child reaches the age of 18 or graduates high school, whichever occurs last, but no later than a child’s nineteenth birthday, unless the child has special needs and/or a disability. If a child has special needs or is disabled, child support may be ordered payable indefinitely.
Child support also may terminate or never be ordered in cases where both spouses have virtually identical income levels.
Can you modify guideline child support?
Yes. Child support is always subject to modification in California and the family court always maintains jurisdiction over (the ability to) modify child support regardless of any child support agreements made by and between spouses.
Child support is always modifiable because the best interests of the child are of tantamount importance and protected by state law. Thus, a Judge may reject and/or override a child support agreement that is not in the best interests of the child and he/she may order a higher level of child support be paid.
Judges have been known to intervene in child support cases where it is obvious that the spouses are agreeing to an unacceptably low level or no child support and one of the spouses clearly does not have the income or assets available to support the child while in his or her custody.
Can Spouses agree to pay or receive less than guideline child support?
Yes. Spouses may agree to pay and/or receive less than guideline child support but the Court always has the jurisdiction (ability to) order guideline support be paid.
When spouses agree to less than guideline child support they must include in the order, an explanation as to why they believe it is acceptable for an amount that is less than guideline child support to be paid.
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