Child support is a mix of many things. Many factors are taken into account while determining child support. How can child support be deducted? The degree to which your situation has changed will determine whether child support can be modified.
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If you fail to notify the court, the court will never be aware of that condition. A decrease in income, a job loss, a spouse who earns more than the other, or more time spent physically raising the children can all have a significant impact on the costs associated with child care. Discuss these changes in circumstances with your lawyer so they can effectively represent you in court and enable you to adjust child support as necessary.
Until the child (or children) reaches the age of 18, or maybe longer (up to the age of 19 1/2) if the child is still in high school or if the parents agree to an extension, both parents are legally obligated to provide for their offspring. But typically, only the noncustodial parent contributes—often in the form of money deducted from a paycheck. Although the law presumes that the custodial parent spends the required amount on the child directly, the non custodial parent is nonetheless obligated to pay child support.
What Is Being Paid For
Normal child support obligations are based on the parents’ incomes, their parenting time commitments, and the number of children to be supported. Parents are also required to pay for child care and medical costs.
The usual child support should be sufficient to pay for the child’s housing, education, clothing, food, and other basic needs.
In addition to usual child support, Michigan courts have the authority to impose child support for child care costs and medical expenses. The court may rule that one parent must purchase health insurance for the child up to a specified monetary amount or percentage of income in order to meet medical costs. The judge will also decide how the parents will split any uninsured medical expenditures.
Child care costs should be covered through child support. While the parent works, goes to school, or looks for a job, this category offers financial assistance to cover child care expenditures for children up to the age of 12. The judge will divide these costs fairly based on the parents’ income.
In their parenting plan, parents might discuss additional matters related to child support. They could decide how to pay for extracurricular activities, travel, special programs, field trips, and other supplemental costs, for instance. When parents divorce in Michigan, some make plans to split college costs.
Where Will Child Support Come From
You must know both parents’ net incomes as well as how much time each parent spends with the child in order to utilize the child support formula. All gross income is deducted from specific adjustments and deductions for alimony received, income taxes, and other payments and premiums made to determine net income.
Your salary, earnings, commissions, overtime pay, and bonuses are all included in your gross income. It also includes any royalties, tips, dividends, military specialty pay, and, if they occur frequently enough, even gains from gambling.
Even if you can remove some advantages, such as means-tested assistance, a one-time gift, or an inheritance, for instance, it’s likely that you have income even if you’re not working. You must factor in any workers’ compensation, unemployment, or disability payments when calculating child support.
Unless a parent has a valid cause for not working, a court or state agency may impute potential income—that is, assign a sum—to a parent who willingly works less or not at all.
Read section 3 of the Michigan Child Support Formula Manual to get the calculations you need to figure out a basic support obligation, as well as guidance on what to include and what you can omit.
While the amount of assistance for the child is mostly determined by the parents’ income, the formula also takes into account the parents’ parenting time to determine how support is split between them. It is assumed a parent’s expenses will increase as more time is spent with the child. But if there are numerous kids living in different houses, the expenditures might be adjusted to make up the difference.
In the Michigan Child Support Formula Manual, section 3.03, you can read more about how this works and see the exact equation employed.
Using the schedules in the Michigan Child Support Formula Supplement and Michigan’s Child Support Formula, you can estimate your fair portion of support; nevertheless, a court, guided by your child’s best interests, has the final word on how much payments should be.
You Can Always Challenge The Child Support Amount
Although a judge must assume the assistance determined by the method is suitable for your child, a standardized judgment occasionally can be unfair. If a judge finds the parents’ agreement is in the best interests of the child, they may not be required to pay the amount specified by the formula when they can agree on a different amount of support.
Before a final order is put in place, you can still ask the judge to change the amount of support even if you and your spouse haven’t reached an agreement. The following elements will be taken into account by the judge to establish a more just level of support:
[a] The demands of the kid
[b] The unusual costs of the child’s education
[c] If a parent is a minor,
[d] If the calculation did not take a parent’s total income into account
[e] If the calculation did not take a parent’s total income into account where a parent receives bonuses infrequently
[f] If a person other than the parent is able to provide medical care
[g] If a parent is financially capable of providing the child with additional help to enhance their standard of living over the poverty line for public assistance
[h] Whether the parents ran up a lot of debt together
[i] If a parent is incarcerated and has little to no income or assets,
[k] Where there are unusually high medical costs
[l] When a parent supports a stepchild almost entirely
[m] When a child makes an extraordinary income
[n] When there is a court order requiring payment of additional expenses
[o] Specific spousal support orders
[p] When a parent’s share of child care costs exceeds 50% of that parent’s base
[q] When a parent’s criminal fines or fees related to child support or a family member
[r] Whether a parent is in bankruptcy the day-care and other parent’s costs not reflected by overnights used to calculate the offset for parental time
[s] When the child is in someone else’s custody
[t] Support obligation before applying the parental time offset
[u] Any additional factor important to the child’s best interests.
[v] The daycare and other parent’s expenses weren’t taken into account when calculating the offset for parental time during overnights.
[w] Where a family member’s or a parent’s criminal fines or costs associated with child support
[x] Whether a parent is bankrupt
[y] If a parent does not have custody of the child.
You must provide proof that a “change of circumstances” has happened since the initial or most recent order was made in order to petition for a modification of the required child support. What would a “changing of circumstances” involve specifically?
For instance, you might want to request a raise if your spouse received a sizable promotion and pay raise at work. Similarly, you might want to request for a reduction in your ordered support if you’ve lost your work, which was overwhelmingly demonstrated during the Covid-19 outbreak.
The idea that the father of the children would always be required to pay child support is a pervasive misconception. This might not always be the case, as the calculating approach in the Michigan Child Support Formula Manual demonstrates.
In many circumstances, the mother of the children may earn more money or perhaps have a more demanding work that necessitates the children stay over with their dads more frequently.
If your overnight count has significantly changed, it would also be advantageous to motion for a revision of support. One or two nights won’t impact the order, but if you’ve increased your parenting schedule by more than 20 nights, things might change.
Many men choose not to petition for changes because they believe they will have spent needlessly their time and money on a court filing. They believe fathers are solely and inevitably accountable for paying child support anyway.
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Goldman & Associates Law Firm is here to with information about Child Custody and Divorce in the State of Michigan.