10
Oct

California guideline child support is determined through the use of the Dissomaster software. In general, the factors that are important to the analysis consist of the parents’ timeshare with the child, each parent’s gross monthly earning, each parent’s tax filing status, healthcare insurance premium and tax deductibles such as mortgage interest and property tax (if either parent owns a home). There are additional factors that are relevant to the inquiry of child support but may or may not apply in all situations such as retirement contributions, union dues, payor’s hardship of raising other children, and many others. Within the category of retirement contributions, one must make the distinction between voluntary contribution versus mandatory contribution, as well as the tax implications for each category. If a parent does not file taxes, the court may be inclined to make changes to each parent’s tax filing status to reflect the additional income available for child support. Child support add-ons is an area where the parties can assign the payments of and the other parent’s reimbursement of child-related expenses such as childcare, sports and extracurricular activities such as soccer or piano classes.

In this analysis, we will focus on one of the most important factors of child support determination: each parent’s gross earnings. It is important to remember that while earnings of the parents are crucial, under some circumstances, the amount of support itself can change drastically when ALL the factors are considered.

Earnings under the CA family law code section 4058 is defined as “Income such as commissions, salaries, royalties, wages, bonuses, rents, dividends, pensions, interest, trust income, annuities, workers’ compensation benefits, unemployment insurance benefits, disability insurance benefits, social security benefits, and spousal support actually received from a person not a party to the proceeding to establish a child support order under this article.” In layman’s terms, it means a parent’s recurring receipts of money. One-time receipt of funds does not qualify as “income” for purposes of calculating child support.

Income can be “imputed” when a parent is unemployed or underemployed and the court finds that the parent, not only has the responsibility to provide financial support to the child but has the capability of earning the “imputed” income.

The income analysis alone for child support can be complex depending on how each parent makes a living. Where a parent receives a low base salary but significant bonuses or overtime, child support can be structured appropriately to capture all of the income that the parent receives, when he or she receives it. For these reasons, when you are seeking child support or has a child support obligation, it is important to seek legal advice to ensure that the child support amount accurately reflects the earning capability of each parent.