A typical child support formula calculates the amount a parent must pay to provide for their children. Gross monthly income is used to determine the percentage owed, and expenses such as health insurance and daycare are added to the base amount. The total amount is then multiplied by each parent’s percentage to determine their monthly obligation.
A typical child support formula is a method of calculating the amount of child support a parent must pay to another parent to help provide for their minor children. Each jurisdiction’s child support formula is contained in its statutes, under a section on child support guidelines. The guidelines will have a child support schedule, which provides the basic amount of child support that both parents must provide. The formula takes the base amount from the program and adds some expenses to derive the total child support obligation. The parent who owes child support will pay a percentage of the total obligation based on his gross monthly income.
To get the numbers needed for a typical child support formula, parents must provide their gross monthly income. Jurisdictions usually define gross income as any income a parent earns from all sources. If a parent is unemployed, a jurisdiction will use a number called potential income. Typically, potential income is the amount of money a parent is able to earn if employed. After each parent has provided their monthly gross income or potential income, you need to add up the numbers to get a combined monthly gross income.
The child support formula will then take each parent’s monthly gross income and divide it by the combined gross income. This calculation will give you a percentage. This percentage will serve as part of the child support formula. The next number needed for the formula is the number of children eligible for child support.
Once you get your combined gross income and number of children, you can get your basic child support amount. Each jurisdiction has a child support schedule, which provides a chart containing baseline child support amounts. These amounts vary and depend on the number of children and combined gross income. Next, you need to find the number of children on the graph and the corresponding combined gross income amount. Once these numbers are on the chart, it will identify the base child support amount for the child or children.
Parents will typically have other expenses for the children. The law usually allows for a child’s health insurance, dental insurance, work-related day care expenses, and other appropriate expenses to be included in the child support formula. The total amount for these expenses is added to the base monthly child support amount by the program. The number generated by adding these numbers is the total monthly child support amount needed for the children.
The child support formula will now require that the total monthly child support amount number be multiplied by each parent’s monthly percentage, as described earlier. For example, if the total amount of monthly child support is $800 US dollars (USD) and a parent’s percentage is 45%, the parent’s monthly child support obligation will be $360. If this parent is already paying for health and dental insurance, the formula will allow that amount to be subtracted from the $360 USD on a monthly basis. The remaining amount will be the amount you owe for child support.
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