THE REALITY

Let’s define some terms to make child support easier to understand.

1. Fathers and Mothers Monthly Gross Income: This is monthly gross income the father and Mother makes. This can be calculated by past performance using documents such as tax returns or pay stubs. In the event that no documentation is available then the amount can be calculated on what the reasonable ability of the parent has to earn income.
2. Total Combined Child Support: After combining both parents income a calculation is completed using tables set by the state to determine the “Total Child Support” amount. This is the amount that the Law says you must use as support for your children. The percentage each parent owes of the total child support is determined by the number of overnights each parent has the children during the year.
3. Mother’s and Father’s Separate Portion of Child Support: Of the Total Child Support amount, each parent is responsible for contributing their portion. The amount each parent pays is directly proportional to the amount of income that parent makes and the number of overnights each parent has the children each year.
4. Direct vs. Indirect payment of Child Support: This is where most couples misunderstand how child support works. There are two ways your children will receive support for their needs from Mom and Dad. The first way is what we call Indirect Support. This is when a parent incurs an expense for basic needs of the child. This would include providing shelter in the form of a house payment or rent, gas for transportation, the purchase of food and clothing, haircuts and all other needs the child might have. The second way a child will receive support is what we call Direct Support. This is when a parent makes a direct cash payment to the other parent to help pay for all of the expenses for the child.

Most of the time both parents will pay at least a portion of Indirect Support. How much an individual parent will pay in Indirect Support will depend on the Custodial Arrangement or Parenting Plan. Only one parent will be required to pay Direct Support, once again depending on the custodial arrangement.

The more time a child spends with one parent the more Indirect Expenses will be incurred. This means more food, higher utility bills, etc. This explains why in a Sole Custody arrangement with the child spending more time with the physical custodial parent, the amount paid in Direct Support from the non-custodial parent would be more than in a Joint Physical Custody arrangement because both parents in Sharing Joint Physical Custody are also sharing more of the Indirect Expenses.

Sole Custody Example

If a mother and father have a combined income of $6,000.00 with the father making $3,500.00 and the mother making $2,500.00. There are 3 kids and both parents have agreed to a sole custody arrangement with the mother. Both parents are assigned a specific amount of child support. The mother’s amount is $616.00 and father’s amount is $861.00. Because mother has sole custody of the children then it is father who will pay his assigned amount of child support to mother, and mother’s assigned amount of child support is used in the indirect expenses for care of the children.

Because the children will be spending most of the time with mom, naturally she will be incurring most of the day-to-day indirect expenses. Mom’s grocery bill will be higher, her utilities will be higher, her auto expenses will be higher, even her housing expenses will be higher. It is easy to see how her $616.00 portion of child support will be eaten up quite quickly. This is when the direct support from Dad will be needed to help. Once again this is paid directly from Dad to Mom and Mom then applies that money in the areas it is needed.

This same scenario can be used if we reverse the sole custody arrangement but instead Dad is the custodial parent. Dad would now use his portion of the child support of $861.00 for the indirect expenses, and mom would pay $616.00 in direct support directly to dad.

Joint Physical Custody

Now let’s assume that both parents agree that a joint custody arrangement will be the best for the children and they settle on a 50/50 parent time schedule with the children will spend 183 days with mom in a year and 182 days with dad. Now in this case as opposed to sole custody, dad is going to have the kids half of the year which means that his indirect expenses for the kids will go up and mom’s will go down compared to if she had sole custody.

In this case using the joint income of $6,000.00, with mom earning $2,500.00 gross per month and dad earning $3,500.00 gross per month, the amount of direct support will change. Who will pay the direct support (mom or dad) once again depends on the amount of overnights the children spend with each parent and the amount of income. In this particular case, dad would be paying $136.00 per month to mom.

CHILD SUPPORT CALCULATOR

Click here to calculate your child support.

(Calculator provided by Utah State Courts)