Determining Child Support in Georgia
At the Shaw Law Firm, LLC, we represent both mothers and fathers in child support matters in Georgia. To learn about your specific legal options — whether you are expected to pay or receive child support — please contact an Atlanta child support attorney from our firm today.
How Child Support Is Determined in Georgia
The law on child support changed dramatically in 2008 with the adoption of what is known as an "income shares" child support model. It used to be that you applied a certain percentage to the payor's gross income and you argued upward or downward from there, based upon the number of children. Now the gross income of both parties must be put into a spreadsheet to determine a "standard" support amount, and this standard support amount is allocated between the parties on a pro rated basis based upon relative gross incomes. To derive gross income certain adjustments are allowed, such as a reduction to a party's gross income for the following circumstances: a self-employment tax, a pre-existing child support order, and a party's responsibility to support a "qualifying" child, which is basically a child from another relationship (your child or adopted child) living in your home, and you actually support the child in your home, you get a credit for this. You do not however, get a credit for supporting a stepchild that you have not adopted. Based upon the final determination of the parties' gross incomes, a standard child support amount is produced.
This standard amount of support is then further adjusted by allocating (pro rata based upon the relative percentage of gross incomes of the parties) the health insurance premium costs for the children (not the cost for the parents, but the premium cost for the children) and the work or education related child care costs for the children. This becomes what is called the "presumptive" child support obligation.
From here it gets interesting because you can then argue deviations upward and deviations downward. This is because the new child support guidelines derived its numbers based upon the average cost for raising children in an INTACT family. That is a one household family where both mom and dad live under the same roof. The guidelines ignored the fact that two households are more expensive than one. Because of this, there is a lot of room for deviating upward and deviating downward. Below are the deviation factors based upon the new statute:
- High income
- Low income
- Other health-related expenses
- Child and dependent care tax credit
- Travel expenses for visitation
- Alimony
- Mortgage (or making in-kind payments)
- Permanency or foster care plan
- Extraordinary expenses
- Non-specific deviations
- Parenting time
Tax Benefits
As an example, there is a tax credit available to the custodial parent for the cost of child care. The guidelines allocate the cost of child care to both parties on a pro rata basis, yet ignore that the custodial parent will also receive a tax credit for the child care that he or she pays. It is neither fair or just, nor in the children's best interest for one party to double pay for child care, and to have to pay a greater share of the expenses than his or her pro rata gross income. Yet that is exactly what happens if the paying party is not given some credit for the child care tax credit. In calculating child support, this factor should always be checked.
There are other tax benefits available to the party claiming children on his or her taxes, such as the Head of Household and the Dependency Exemptions. It is not fair or just, nor in the children's best interest to require one party to pay more than his or her pro rata share of expenses. If a party is claiming Head of Household and/or the children as dependency exemptions, that can add hundreds of dollars a month to that party's after tax income. For example, with two children and a gross income of $4,200 per month, the actual tax cash benefit for the children (excluding the child care credit discussed in the previous paragraph) is well over $500 per month. That is more than $500 per month in actual cash the party has to spend on the children solely from the fact that the party gets to claim the child on his or her taxes. It is not fair that the child support paying party not be given pro rata credit for this benefit. To do otherwise is to require one party to pay more than his or her fair share under the statute.
Travel Expenses
Travel expenses are another deviation factor. The parties are no longer living in one household. It costs money to pick up the children, take the children out for visitation, etc. This is a cost that did not exist when the parties were living together as is assumed in the new child support guidelines. In practice, this deviation comes in when visitation travel is of a longer distance or expenses are greater. For example, you live in Marietta. Your ex-spouse moves the kids to Hall County. You are now going to incur the expense of gas, wear and tear on the car, and probably meals in order to continue visiting your children on the same basis. It is not fair or just, nor in the children's best interest for you to bear this expense alone, and your ex-spouse, who moved, should bear at least a portion of this expense, or perhaps all of it depending on the circumstances of his or her move. This deviation becomes a real necessity when visitation is a really long distance such as across the state or out of state. Then you have the cost of airfare, hotels, lost work, and a host of things other than gas, wear and tear on the automobile, and meals. I had one case where the visiting father flew in from Texas, one week a month to keep his son in Atlanta during the school year. He even rented a condominium to stay with his son in Atlanta during that week. He received $600 a month downward deviation to help defray these expenses. It was in the child's best interest for this client to continue visiting with his son in this manner, but it was unfair and unjust for him to bear this expense himself, and it did not harm his ex-wife's ability to provide necessities for their son.
Parenting Time
Parenting time deviation is only loosely defined, and not very well understood. From a practical perspective, look at it as having more time than "standard" visitation. Standard visitation is between 20% and 24% custody time (which is between 75 and 90 days per year with the children), depending on how many weeks of visitation you get in the summer. For most of my clients they do not want "standard" visitation. They want more visitation, and if we don't get custody for some reason we get as much visitation as we can. But for calculation purposes, standard visitation is every other weekend from Friday until Sunday, a dinner with the kids each week, splitting the holidays 50/50, and two weeks during the summer. In practice (from how the courts have been interpreting this deviation so far) if you have 90 or more days a year of custody time with the children you can make a valid argument for a parenting time deviation. This deviation exists because the new child support guidelines do not take into account the expense of parent who has more than "standard" visitation, and do not take into account that the support needs of the custodial parent are reduced if the non-custodial parent has more than standard visitation. It is therefore not fair, nor just, nor in the children's best interest not to make a deviation based upon parenting time. In practice, a good method of determining the amount of deviation involves calculating a per diem amount per day of support, and then giving a credit for this amount to the non-custodial parent for each above standard visitation day that the non-custodial parent has the children. This can be done by taking the presumptive amount of support, calculating it on a per day basis (instead of a per month basis) and running the numbers to see what sort of parenting time deviation is warranted. Keep in mind that it can also work in reverse if a parent exercises less than standard visitation with the children.
Extraordinary Expenses
Extraordinary expenses are another little understood deviation that is often abused. Let's say that your kids take piano lessons, or they have extracurricular activities that cost money. The custodial parent is going to want you, along with paying child support, to pay "your fair share" of these expenses. However, that is not how the statute treats these sort of expenses, and don't let your spouse tell you otherwise. This is because the average amount of these expenses is already included in the standard child support amount we discussed in the first paragraph of this article. To pay your "fair share" of these expenses again would be double paying, as your child support already includes these expenses. Instead, the statute allows a deviation for these expenses only if these expenses are truly beyond the ordinary. And that is when these expenses EXCEED 7% of the Basic Child Support Obligation (which is the standard child support amount we discussed in the first paragraph). Only an amount that exceeds 7% will be considered a deviation upward or downward, depending on who is paying the expense.
Extraordinary expenses may also include extraordinary medical expenses, not just for the children, but also for the parents, if such expenses produce a hardship.
The premiums you pay for life insurance, dental insurance, and vision insurance are also potential deviation factors.
Alimony
If you are paying alimony, this factor can be used as a deviating factor. Any other factor that would tend to reduce the needs of one party or increase the burden of the other party, such as if one party is paying in-kind expenses like a mortgage for the other party, can be taken into account as a deviation.
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The above are the major deviation factors. They should not be ignored as they can literally be worth $10,000 or more per year in child support that is either paid or received. Over the minority of your children that can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Under the new law, after tossing all of this information into a spreadsheet, you get the amount of child support that is to be paid per month. I can tell you from experience that most opposing attorneys I come up against are not utilizing the majority of deviation factors. Primarily because they don't understand them or they don't even remember them. The best child support attorneys do understand these factors and they know how to argue for and against them.
Contact a Skilled Sandy Springs Guidelines Attorney Today
Determining a fair and just amount of child support is no longer clear cut and it is no longer a simple matter. If you have any questions, we would be happy to speak with you about the issue.
To set up a time to discuss your child support matters, please feel free to contact Atlanta child support lawyer Scott Shaw by calling 678-292-5865 .
