I always tell people that the child support calculation is a math problem. Take one parent’s income, add the other parent’s income, and get a total. For example, Mom makes $3,000.00 a month, Dad makes $6,000.00 a month. If you add this up you get $9,000.00 a month. The child support calculator, a law in the State of Georgia, will come up with a total child support figure of $1, 150.00 for BOTH parents for one (1) child. As Mom makes 1/3rd of this amount, and Dad makes 2/3rds of this amount, the child support is allocated based on their respective income. If Dad has primary custody of the child, Mom will pay $383.00 per month. If Mom has primary custody of the child, Dad will pay $767.00.
Simple so far, as much as we all enjoy math. Where it gets complicated and where an attorney is crucial, are the other factors considered. For example, the cost of daycare and the cost of health care gets added to this figure and divided based on same ratio. If daycare costs $1,200.00 per month, Dad’s portion increases by $800.00 per month based on this ratio. If Dad is paying for health insurance for the child, which costs him $400.00 per month, his child support will be decreased by 1/3rd of this amount or $133.00 dollars.
In addition, if one parent is already paying child support, there is a deviation from that parent’s income, which affects the net income. If one parent lives out of state and has travel expenses to visit the child, that can be considered.
In addition, sometimes a parent’s income is in dispute. It is easy to calculate income if someone is an employee, but what if a parent is a business owner who is very generous with deductions? What if someone has taken a low paying job simply for purposes of lowering child support?
In many cases a good lawyer can make a big difference in the child support number. While child support is a math problem, it often is not an easy math problem.
Here is the child support calculator website which is helpful to use to get a beginning idea about child support. https://csconlinecalc.georgiacourts.gov/frontend/web/index.php