Child Support Calculation

the child support calculators on this site are based on GROSS monthly income (before taxes) not NET (after taxes)

Sorry, I guess I was up way too late…Here is what I meant.
Something that has struck me funny about determining the amount of Child Support. Child Support is based on your Gross income for the month, why is that? If I make $2500 per month, I do not get a $2500 paycheck, I get an approximate $1800 - $1900 check after taxes. Why do they not determine the Child Support based on the NET Income after taxes. I do understand other benefits come out of a paycheck but the ones that are unavoidable is Federal and State tax. I make 2500 per month, which is about 1850 per month and 450 for child support is based on my income and the little one she has, even though her husband now has a good paying job

that’s just the way the calculators work. They don’t take into account her new husband’s income - it’s not his child. Depending on your Schedule - A or B - it is just based on factors like # of children, # of nites, gross income of both parents, health insurance paid, day care paid, etc. Think about the fact that if your child was living with you paying $450 towards their living expenses (clothes, rent/mortgage, food, portion of utilities, shoes, uncovered medical costs) would be about what you’d be paying.

Well, I was only questioning why it is determined on the Taxed portion and not the remaining portion, considering that the taxes have to e taken out where as a companies benefits like 401K and etc is optional. And then on the backside to that, you can not use child support as a deduction, which I feel only the reason it should be is the amount is based on a paycheck before taxes are taken out.

well, what can I say except…suck it up buttercup - that’s the way the system works. We pay over 3x what you pay - for 3 kids.

I wish the child support I have to pay was based on my monthly income. I had to work a lot of overtime this past year to pay to move and for an attorney because my ex was taking me to court. I have ALWAYS paid for his needs. Well, now I am having to pay HER based on what I made last year. I bring home $1500/month and the judge has ordered me to pay my ex right at $1,000/month. Explain that one. This is for one child.
As far as what is being paid for, would her and her husband not be paying for rent, electricity and all of those things if my son isn’t at their house? Why should I have to pay for those things? I respect someone paying to support THEIR CHILD but I think the system needs to be reevaluated. When my son is with me, I am honored to pay for him to live there, eat there, use the power, etc.
On top of all of that, he was taken away from me by the courts, I never gave up my right for my son. I am a paramedic with no legal charges ever against me (I do a lot of other things for my community)who moved my mother in with me to take care of her (I figured she deserves it) and she helps me raise my son (has done so since he was born). My ex has been charged with child abuse and neglect, her husband with marijuana charges, shooting into occupied dwelling, multiple DUI’s, and fighting with police. His first divorce was because of his drinking and he told my ex (and now the courts) that this time he has really given up drinking. I wonder where my child support money will be going?[?]

chomedr2002, you bring up a lot of good points. The child support system is based on many fundamentally flawed underlying principles. In a nutshell, child support awards are usually excessive and the obligor parent usually bears a disproportionate or unrealistic share of the support burden. Judges do pretty much what they want with child support; it’s very difficult to get even a highly fubar’d ruling changed.

So let’s see here. You pay your ex only 67% of your take-home pay each month for child support for one child? And you’re complaining because you have only $500 to live on for the entire month? Good God, man! You just need to cut back on your extravagant living expenses! To paraphrase the Beatles song “Taxman,” “Be thankful child support doesn’t take it all.”

Wakedad, it is funny that you type with those figures. I just got the final word and for the next five months I will be paying out 66% of my income to my ex leaving me with roughly $230/month for living. So I have to pay for rent, basic needs, utilities, etc. out of $230/month. Tell me, (other than folks living on the streets)who can do that? You know, I’m beginning to understand the hatred toward the justice system, and as i said earlier, why they say that justice is blind. How can it be possible for one person (the judge) take away everything a person has? I haven’t committed a crime. I’ve worked my life trying to give back to others, and now what I have made for myself is just going to be taken away?
If anyone can, please help me understand all of this.

And to make it worse, my understanding of this situation is that if you get another job to try to make ends meet, you’ll have to pay a portion of that income as well. The parents paying support are screwed. I’m the stepparent, and I’ll be the one getting a second job so that we can actually keep the money to help us make ends meet. How fair is that?

Something that has struck me funny about determining the amount of Child Support. Child Support is based on your net income for the month, why is that? If I make $2500 per month, I do not get a $2500 paycheck, I get an approximate $1800 - $1900 check after taxes. Why do they not determine the Child Support based on the Gross Income after taxes. I do understand other benefits come out of a paycheck but the ones that are unavoidable is Federal and State tax. I make 2500 per month, which is about 1850 per month and 450 for child support is based on my income and the little one she has, even though her husband now has a good paying job.