Wednesday, January 20th, 2016
Child Support is court ordered payments to financially support a child. Many are surprised to discover that who “gets custody” (generally defined as day-to-day care and control) is not the single factor in determining the amount of child support. Rather, there are a variety of factors considered.
Weighing heavily are two factors: combined income of the parents and parenting time with the child.
I want to focus now on parenting time, as it’s a factor in which many parents out there are able to change. Yet, they have not done so because they were not aware they had the ability to make a change.
Parenting time is the time each parent spends with the child. Generally, this parenting time is determined by the number of nights a child spends with a parent. A non-custodial parent will get a discount on their child support in recognition for a greater amount of parenting time. A parent spending 10-45% of the time with the child gets a 12% reduction; whereas a parent spending less than 10% gets no reduction.
Unfortunately, for many non-custodial parents already spending considerable time with their child(ren), they get no reduction in their child support. The reason is that a court will not considering the parenting time unless a parenting time order has been established by the Court. This fact makes it important that non-custodial parents seek a court established parenting time order.
There’s another reason why getting parenting time is important. Unless a parenting order is set, the non-custodial parent’s time with their child(ren) can often be determined at the whim of the custodial parent. It’s a heartbreaking experience for both a parent and child(ren) when plans for time together are suddenly ended by a custodial parent.
Dahlberg Law Office can help you if you are experiencing difficulties with child support or parenting time.
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Republished with permission from the Duluth Budgeteer, January 17, 2016.
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