As I wrote in yesterday’s post, divorce is something that affects people of every industry– including farmers, ranchers, and agri-businesses. A party does not necessarily have to be going through divorce to be owed child support. In New York, the court calculates (weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly) child support based upon the Child Support Standards Act (“CSSA”). The statutory formula is based upon a percentage of the first $130,000/year of the parents’ combined gross income plus a discretionary percentage of the parties’ combined gross income in excess of $130,000/year.
The applicable percentage is based upon the number of children the parents share: 17% for one child, 25% for two children, 29% for three children, 31% for four children, and 35% for five or more children. The amount of child support is calculated after taxes and deductions (e.g., spousal support) and proportional based upon the relative income of the parties. Courts may consider several factors for upward adjustments including, but not limited to, physical/emotional health of child, standard of living, non-monetary contributions that parent will contribute to child’s well-being, extraordinary expenses, and special educational needs.
I like to give my clients a copy of this brochure from the New York State Bar Association that does a nice job explaining how the calculations are determined. The New York court system also offers this chart online to help parents (and attorneys) calculate child support.