Judges have to follow specific guidelines when deciding how much child support one party has to pay. They consider these factors when deciding on the amount payable:
Courts use a computer program, such as Dissomaster or Xspouse, which are based on the California formula for child support to calculate monthly child support payments.
Each partner provides the court with their gross income, which the court uses to determine the gross annual income and divides it by 12 to get the monthly amount. For your knowledge, gross income can consist of:
Some people may quit their job to show the court that they are unable to provide the ordered child support payments. If this scenario comes to the court’s attention, it will consider the amount the partner was earning prior to quitting their job and otherwise is able to earn and calculate child support using that. Before ordering that, the unemployed partner will have to provide the court with proof stating that there are available jobs that he/she is qualified to apply.
The court looks at what the regular weekly custodial schedule is, along with the annual holiday and vacation schedule to determine the percentage of custodial timeshare for each parent. The most accurate way to determine such percentages is to break down each party’s custodial time into hours and then divide by the number of hours in one year (8,760).
You should always consult with an experienced divorce mediator or attorney to fully understand what child support you can expect to pay or receive.
Gerald A. Maggio is a trained Orange County divorce mediator who has amicably resolved cases many cases out of court, as well as an experienced divorce and family law attorney. Mr. Maggio founded California Divorce Mediators in 2012 with the belief that although “not every marriage can be saved, every family can” and a mission to save families from the financial and emotional distress associated with traditional divorce litigation. California Divorce Mediators is located in Irvine, California, and serves the Orange County area and other counties in California offering divorce mediation, child custody mediation and mediation of other family law matters.
The post How is Child Support Determined in California? first appeared on SEONewsWire.net.]]>