5. What are the Child Support Guidelines?
A child support award allows the custodial parent to provide the child with all of the essentials, such as food, clothing, and shelter. In order to ensure that the courts issue consistent chid support awards, the State has enacted the Child Support guidelines. These guidelines are a formula which guides the person with factors to consider in reaching a child support award. The guidelines are derived from the Consumer Expenditure Survey. The guidelines take income info from both parties, and this info is applied to a formula to calculate a child support award. The current guidelines also provide for a self-support reserve for the payor parent. Basically, this means that if a person is too poor, and they can’t even survive, then they don’t have to pay child support. As of February 7, 2003, the self-support reserve was $181, or 105% of the poverty guideline for one person.
6. What are the Child Support Guidelines worksheets?
When a court calculates child support they must use a Child Support Guideline worksheets. There are two types of worksheets. The sole parenting worksheet is used when any of the following occur: (1) there is no visitation from the other parent; (2) there is sporadic visitation from the other parent (which does not exceed 2 or more overnights per week); (3) there is more than one child and at list one child resides with each parent. The shared parenting worksheet is used when the parties share more parenting time with the child. The non-custodial parent must have custody of the child for at least two or more overnights per week. The courts use a computer program to calculate child support. In order to use the computer program, the court must input the relevant income info into the program. There are two options on the computer program. The court can calculate child support either using the sole parenting worksheet or the shared parenting worksheet. The child support award will be higher if the court uses the sole parenting worksheet option. Alternatively, the child support award will be lower if the court uses the shared parenting worksheet option.
7. How does the Guidelines define gross income?
The Guidelines define gross income as any and all of the followings: compensation for services; income from a business minus any operating expenses; gains from property; interest and dividends; rents; bonuses and royalties; alimony or maintenance payments received from the current or other relationships; annuities; life insurance contracts; payments from retirement plans; awards from personal injury or civil suits income from a trust disability payments, profit sharing plans; worker’s compensation; unemployment benefits; overtime, part-time and severance pay; net gambling winnings; earnings from investments; tax credits or rebates; unreported cash payments; and imputed income.
8. How does a court arrive at the parent’s net taxable income to calculate a child support award?
To arrive at a parent’s net taxable income, the parent’s withholding tax, prior child support orders, mandatory union dues and other dependent deductions are subtracted from the adjusted gross income. If there is non-taxable income, it is then added to the net taxable income to arrive at the parent’s net income. Each parent’s net income is then divided by the combined net income to determine their percentage share of income. The parents are then required to pay their percentage share of the weekly child support obligation. 9. Can the court also award additional expenses with respect to the parties’ basic child support obligations? In addition to calculating a straight child support award, the court may also award additional expenses with regard to the parties’ basic child support obligations. The most common expenses that are awarded are day care and health insurance expenses. The expenses for day care and health insurance can easily inflate a child support award to approach the size of a mortgage payment. If the parties have some dough, then the courts will also require the father/payor to pay for a share of any summer camp, and for the children’s extracurricular activities. The courts will also require the payor to pay for a share of the sports related activities, dance classes, music lessons, etc. If the parties have limited economic resources, then a court most often will hold that the expenses for these activities are part of the child support award. If the parties have money, then in most cases the court will make the payor front these expenses. The lesson to be learned is that getting divorced is not cheap.Â
10. Can child support be modified?
When sufficient circumstances are present, a child support obligation can be modified. New Jersey law requires that the person who seeks to modify a support award must prove that there has been a “change in circumstances.†The phrase “change of circumstances†is a very broad legal term of art. There are literally hundreds of cases that discuss what is a “change of circumstances.†Either party can file a motion for an increase/decrease in child support with the clerk. The parties must submit a completed CIS, income info, and the normal motion package. In my experience, it is very difficult for a father/payor to have child support lowered on the grounds that he lost his job or got a decrease in pay. In most of these cases, the court will temporarily reduce child support, and give the father time to find better employment. Motions to reduce child support are usually only granted if the father can prove that he has health problems that limit his earning abilities. The courts may also lower child support if the father has additional children after the divorce. However, some courts will hold that the father is underemployed, and he should work additional jobs to pay for both families.Â
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