Child Support Payments: An Overview How To Calculate Child Support

Child support is money parents pay to help support their children in the event of divorce or legal separation. The court orders the support and is when one parent pays support to the other parent directly on a regular basis every week, every other week, or every month. The support money that is paid regularly by a parent to help pay for food, housing, clothing, healthcare costs, medical care, day care and other costs for a child.  Indirect child support, on the other hand, involves payments made to third parties for expenses such as school tuition, camp, after school activities and private lessons.

Child support payments are calculated based on both parties incomes, utilizing the gross monthly income of the parties involved.

The amount of child support payments depends on the number of children as follows:

One   (1) child is eighteen percent (18%)
Two   (2) children are twenty-five percent (25%)
Three (3) children are twenty-nine percent (29%)
Four   (4) children are thirty-three percent (33%); and each additional child is two percent (2%).

Whatever is in the most recent court order must be paid until the court makes a new order. Child support is always modifiable and may be changed when either party's financial circumstances change or there is a change in the custody or visitation schedule. Child support is not affected by visitation in most cases. Only a court can change a child support order because a custodial parent has not allowed the court ordered visitation.

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