For the purposes of calculating child support, each parent has a Child Support Income. It is your taxable income minus the Self-Support Amount minus the costs of any dependents. Child Support Income quantifies your capacity to maintain children financially.

What is the child support self-support amount?

The self-support amount is the amount that is deducted from the parent’s adjusted taxable income for their own support. The amount is the same for both parents and is indexed each year. The annual value of the self-support amount is included in the table of basic values in 2.4.

What is the maximum child support payable?

Maximum support The maximum child support payable is also known as the “cap” . The maximum child support is applied to the combined income of both parents up to 2.5 times the annual equivalent of all Male Total Average Weekly Earnings (MTAWE) and calculated using the Costs of Children Table.

How do they determine how much child support you pay?

Example – Calculating the rate of child support

1. Work out each parent’s Adjusted Taxable Income.
2. Subtract the self-support amount.
3. Subtract a further amount if either parent has a relevant dependent child or pays child support for another child or children.
4. Calculate the Combined Child Support Income.

Who is the paying parent in child support?

The paying parent will be whoever has to pay more according to the child support calculator. However, the amount that parent has to pay is the difference between the two amounts they got for each parent. Here’s an example of how to do it:

Why is child support based off of ex spouses income?

The reason is because child support is used to support the child, not the ex spouse. In situations where the custodial parent is married to a new spouse who has a significant income or a significant amount of resources, the courts in Texas and many states cannot take into account the new spouse’s income when determining the amount of child support.

How much money is owed in unpaid child support?

A tally of unpaid support in 1992 calculated that a staggering $27 billion in outstanding uncollected child support prevented children from having their needs met and that nearly 50% of child support payments were in default (in 1995), while only 3% of car loans were in the same state!

How often do you have to pay child support?

That means at least 40% of the time with each parent. If you agree that each of you has the children for about the same amount of time, the paying parent is usually the one who makes the most money.