Self Employed Child Support Payment Amount

Hello,

I have been wanting to start my own business for the last few years. I have been separated for the last eight months, and have been giving about $1,100 a month for child support. Currently, I have no signed separation agreement and no judgement in regards to child support orders have been made. What will the courts make me pay or base my child support on come next year during of divorce case? I live in NC and she lives in SC.

Depending upon what state has jurisdiction over your case (which is determined by where the parties live and how long they have lived there), your child support obligation could be based on South Carolina law. If your case is based on NC law, the child support guidelines allow the court to impute income to you if the court finds that you are unemployed or underemployed in bad faith to avoid your child support obligation. While it doesn’t sound like you would be opening the business in bad faith, sometimes income is still imputed so you should run the guidelines based on the income you received at your most recent paid position to determine what your liability could be.