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Hot Tips on Child Support #1

May 28, 2013 | Written by: Diana N. Fredericks, Esq. |

1.     Where Parents have 50/50 physical custody:
      When the parties share an equal number of overnights with the child, the following three-step procedure should be used to adjust the paying parent's child support obligation to account for the fact that both parties are responsible for paying the child's "controlled expenses" during their parenting time.   This procedure will "back out" the 25% in "assumed" controlled expenses from the paying parent's child support obligation.   The first step is to multiply the Basic Child Support Amount determined in Line 9 of the Child Support Guidelines Shared Parenting Worksheet by the payor's income share.   Second, this figure should be multiplied by 25%, which represents the controlled expenses assumed by the Guidelines.  Third, the product of this calculation is then subtracted from the paying parent's "Adjusted Basic CS Amount," as reflected on Line 15 of the Worksheet.   The result reached is the payor's child support obligation and takes into account that both parties, and not just the party receiving child support, pay controlled expenses for the child during their equally shared parenting time. See: Wunsch-Deffler v. Deffler