How is Child Support Calculated?
Your responsibility to provide for your child doesn’t end when you divorce your spouse or leave a partner. Both parents must continue supporting their child or children financially as long as they are minors.
In New Jersey, the courts use a standard formula as a starting place to determine child support obligations. The base amount can be adjusted based on the specific factors involved in the case and the needs of the child or children in question.
However, because of the numerous considerations weighed in determining child support, it’s common to wonder how it will be calculated in your unique case.
While this blog can’t provide specific numbers or figures or tell you exactly what to expect, it can help clarify the process and things to consider as you and your co-parent negotiate a child support agreement.
The importance of child support
According to the Rules of Court, the foundation for the child support guidelines is that:
- Both parents have an ongoing duty to provide child support
- Children have the right to share in their parent’s income
- Children should not be the economic victims of being born out of wedlock or divorce
Parents who don’t remain together after conceiving a child still maintain their financial responsibilities to that child. Child support is not for the parents, even though it is paid from one parent to another, and the recipient can generally choose how to use the money. The money exchanged as child support is for the child.
Child support helps ensure children’s quality of life doesn’t suffer when their parents separate or divorce. It is intended to allow children with parents who are not together to have the same opportunities as children of intact families.
How is child support calculated in New Jersey?
New Jersey’s child support guidelines are used to calculate the baseline child support obligations for parents.
According to the New Jersey Rules of Court, these guidelines are a rebuttable presumption for child support orders, which means that a child support amount calculated based on the guidelines is assumed to be correct unless a party proves otherwise in court.
Judges may disregard or deviate from the child support guidelines if they believe they’re inappropriate in a specific case.
Calculating child support: the basic formula
New Jersey has a child support calculator that is a starting point for calculating child support obligations. The basic formula used to calculate the amount of child support considers:
- The number of children to be supported
- The combined gross incomes of both parents
- The percentage of parenting time for each parent
Entering the above information into the formula gives you a starting point for child support payments.
It’s important to note that gross income is income from any source, not just wages and salaries. Therefore, the child support calculator is only as reliable as the information entered by the user.
Additional factors used to calculate child support
Other factors may be considered when calculating the amount of child support, including:
- The ages of the children being supported
- The marital status of each parent
- Whether one or both parents have health insurance for their children and a proportional amount of the premiums for the children
- Whether a child has special needs, including education costs, medical expenses, special diet, and more
- Existing child support payments that are part of an existing agreement or child support order
- Whether a parent has mandatory deductions from their pay, such as union dues
- The cost of child care paid by each parent outside of the child support payments
- Other support being paid, such as alimony
- The parents’ liabilities and debts
When parents have shared custody, the child support payments are generally not as high as in cases involving sole custody arrangements.
The above list of factors is not exhaustive. Judges can consider whatever factors they deem relevant to determining a fair amount of child support for a child.
Furthermore, the child support guidelines have a cap. High net worth and high-earning couples might not “fit” within the child support guidelines. In those cases, judges use various factors to determine the child support obligations if the parents cannot agree. If parents do reach an agreement, the court must approve the agreement to ensure it is fair for the children.
Use caution when referring to the guidelines calculator
The child support guidelines calculator should only be used for informational purposes. It can give you an idea of how things might look, but it doesn’t dictate how parents make payments, how income is determined, or what parents should do if child-related expenses fall outside the guidelines.
Additionally, the guidelines don’t reflect the potential for circumstances to change over the years. Child support orders may need to be modified depending on income increases or decreases, new children, and more.
Consult with a New Jersey family law attorney about child custody and child support issues
Our family law attorneys at Dughi, Hewit & Domalewski are trained, court-approved family court mediators. We focus on personalized child custody and parenting plans that are tailored to your unique situation. Contact us today for a consultation.
