How much will be the child support payment?

Child support may be determined by agreement of the parties and approval by the Court. When that cannot occur, the Court has guidelines that it often uses to calculate a child support amount, although the Court may deviate from the guidelines in certain circumstances. The guideline child support is used to determine child support amounts in most cases.

The guidelines assess a percentage determined by the number of children the person has a duty to support and the number of children involved in the case against the person's net resources (similar to but not the same as net income). The following chart provides the normal guideline percentage:

Net Resources is usually determined by the following formula:

Monthly Gross Income - Social Security and Medicare Taxes (7.65%) - Federal Taxes based on tax rate for single person claiming one personal exemption and the standard deduction - State Income Tax - Union Dues - Health Insurance for the Children Before the Court. If the Net Resources is over $6,000 per month, the guidelines only consider the first $6,000.

In addition to child support, the person paying child support is often also responsible for the payment of health insurance for the children, either by providing the health insurance or reimbursing the other party for the cost of providing the health insurance.