Massachusetts Child Support for Dummies

Introduction: In searching for images to add to this post, I googled "Child Support" Images...and discovered some incredibly disturbing images of child support stereotypes.  Children throwing money in the air, men behind bars, cartoons of women with jewelry labeled child support and some other images so offensive I refuse to even mention them (Hitler people, there was an image with Hitler involved).  THIS is why people need to take the time to understand the child support worksheet.  And if you want to get angry with someone, get angry with the people who created the worksheet (The legistlature, democracy at work! Did you pay attention to what your legislator was voting on...?) don't get mad at your attorney, the other parent's attorney, the judge OR the other parent.  The worksheet is what is, understand how to fill it out correctly, deal with it and maybe write your Congressman.

Ok, so you don't have to be a dummy to find child support calculations confusing.  I hear from clients and friends things like: "My friend has 2 kids and she gets three times the child support I do and I have 3 kids! How is that possible?" or "I know a guy who only pays $20 a week and he has more kids than I do! It's not fair!"  The answer? The mystery known as the Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines.  Feel free to read them in their entirety, but be ready with a pillow and a blanket *just in case* it's not as riveting as you expected.

The biggest reason in the disparity between individuals is  because they have different incomes. (Yes, people make different amounts of money, shocking I know)  The number one factor in child support in Massachusetts is income.  Massachusetts recently went to a shared income formula, so it is the income of BOTH parents that matters.  Expenses, such as rent, mortgage, car payments, credit card debt, do not factor into the child support worksheet at all.  The court requires that expenses be listed on the financial statement everyone needs to file, but outside of cases of extremely low income, expenses are *generally* not considered by the court.  Please refrain from whining about how unfair this is. If you want to whine, whine to your political representative, because that's the law and I'm not Congress.

So the child support guidelines worksheet.  Doing it on the computer is really simple nowadays.  You can find the worksheet on the trial court website, or just click here.  Every field is divided between Recipient and Payor.  At the risk of stating the obvious, the Payor is the person who is paying the child support and the Recipient is the person receiving the child support. All amounts are WEEKLY.  And income is gross income, which means what your paycheck says BEFORE taxes.  (Again, if you are going to whine about how unfair that is, do it to your political rep) If you are paid bi-weekly, you take the amount of your gross income on your paycheck and divide by two. If you are paid monthly, you divide by 4.3 to get the weekly amount.  Income means ALL income.  Rental income, unemployment benefits, social security payments, welfare benefits, and pretty much any other way money that is received by someone. Even contributions from other household members is considered income, so if your (or the other parent's) parents or new spouse are paying for things, that is income.  If someone's job is paying for their car, what that car payment would be if the person was paying it is considered income.  When I say everything is income, I really mean EVERYthing is income.

After income, child care expenses (which would include summer and day camps), health care expenses (what someone pays for health insurance for the child AND the child's uninsured medical expenses) and dental and vision expenses (again, what someone pays for the child's dental insurance AND the child's uninsured dental and vision expenses) are plugged into the worksheet.  These are WEEKLY amounts.  For health insurance, especially if taken out of someone's paycheck, figuring out the weekly amount is usually pretty simple.  Also for regular day care, it is pretty much like figuring out weekly income (if paid bi-weekly divide by 2, if paid monthly, divide by 4.3). For things like uninsured medical, dental and vision expenses, if you know the monthly amount, divide by 4.3 and if you know a general yearly amount, divide by 52.  The same goes for summer camp.  If you (or the other parent) pays for summer camp, take the total amount paid and divide by 52 to get the weekly amount per year.

All amounts entered into the worksheet are what is actually paid by each parent. Although if the children "always" go to summer camp, and the worksheet is being done before the summertime, entering those amounts is generally okay.

The section labeled "Minus Other Support Obligations Paid" can be tricky one.  This refers to amounts paid in the "traditional" manner of child support (a set weekly amount paid in some manner to the other parent for the support of a child or children born before the child subject to the worksheet) but it also refers to informal support provided for other children (not the child who is the subject of the worksheet) living in the home with a parent or voluntarily paid for children living outside the home.  If there are previous children a parent is paying for, run a separate guidelines worksheet (it can be a rough estimate) for those children and enter that amount in the current worksheet for support paid for other children.  For children born after the child who is the subject of the worksheet, other support paid is only for children living IN the home.  If you are paying support or supporting informally other children, you should consult with an experienced family attorney to best determine what amount should be entered on the worksheet.

So, once the top part is done, all you  have to enter is the number of children (line 2a) and the worksheet does the rest for you! The number at the very bottom is the number of child support to be paid per week.

If there is joint physical custody (meaning the child spends equal time with each parent, give or take 1 day), or split custody (where one child lives with Parent 1 and another child lives with Parent 2) then do one worksheet where Parent 1 is the Payor, Parent 2 is Recipient and a second worksheet where Parent 1 is Recipient, Parent 2 is Payor.  Take the final amount from each worksheet and subtract. Whatever the difference is, is paid to the parent who has the lowest amount of support at the bottom of their worksheet.  Note: If the difference is small ($20 or less usually), the parties can just agree, and the judge will probably agree as well, that no support be paid.

As with anything in the family court, it is always easier and advisable to at least get the advice of an experienced family law attorney.  How to determine what is income, what are legitimate expenses and how everything is calculated into weekly amounts can become a complex process.

Bottom Line: Having the worksheet done correctly is in everyone's best interest and can really cut down on animosity between parents, making everything better for the kids involved. And, once a form is filled out incorrectly, it is much more costly and time-consuming to undo it than it would have been to do it right in the first place. So make sure you work carefully and get it right in Round 1.  Hooray!!