Child Support & You
At LifeLoveLaw, we understand that your main concern during a divorce will be how it affects your children.
This is why we offer affordable help with child support cases in Atlanta.
Our attorneys will work diligently to make this transition as smooth as possible for everyone involved.
Couples with minor children are required to submit a parenting plan to the Georgia courts as part of their divorce. This lays out all of the guidelines for co-parenting the children going forward, including which parent the children will primarily be living with, when the parents spend time with the children, and how decisions about the children will be made. Some details of what a parenting plan looks like can be found on our Child Custody page.
The state child support guidelines outline how much money is expected for the support and maintenance of children. Each parent’s income is entered into a Georgia Child Support Worksheet, which serves as a guideline for the final child support obligation. Expenses for the children such as child care, health insurance premiums, and any extraordinary expenses are also included or entered.
Determining Child Support
To determine your estimated child support guideline award (or how much support the state recommends for your case or situation), you can make use of Georgia’s Child Support Calculator. You can also follow the steps below. Note: the court can order more or less than the guideline award, as it sees appropriate.
- Step 1: Determine Each Parent’s Adjusted Monthly Gross Income
- Add your monthly taxable income from sources such as wages, salary, unemployment benefits, Social Security and others. (This excludes welfare.)
- Subtract any qualifying deductions such as child support you may receive for other children.
- The resulting sum is your adjusted monthly gross income.
- Step 2: Combine Adjusted Monthly Gross Incomes
- Add each parent’s results from Step 1 to determine your combined adjusted monthly gross income.
- Step 3: Find Each Parent’s Percentage of Income
- Divide each parent’s adjusted monthly gross income (Step 1) by the combined adjusted monthly gross income (Step 2). Round to the second decimal place.
- This number is each individual parent’s percentage of income.
- Step 4: Check the Combined Basic Support Obligation
- Utilizing the Basic Child Support Obligation Table, locate your combined adjusted monthly gross income (Step 2) in the left-hand column. (Round down if your exact total isn’t listed.)
- Using your indicated row, follow across to the column labeled with the total number of children for your situation.
- This figure is your combined basic support obligation.
- Step 5: Determine Each Parent’s Basic Support Obligation
- Taking the combined basic support obligation (Step 4), multiply the number by each parent’s percentage of income.
- The resulting sum is your default individual basic support obligation.
If one parent has primary or sole custody, the court will likely order that the other parent’s basic support obligation be paid to them as child support. In instances where parents share joint physical custody, the parent with the higher usually pays. (Often they will pay less than their basic support obligation, however, as the court does and can apply certain deviations where applicable.)
Deviations
Courts may award less or more than the suggested guideline child support award based on a number of factors, known as deviations.
- Unusually High or Low Income
- Voluntary Unemployment is not applicable
- Parenting Time
- Which Parent Pays for the Child’s School Tuition
- Which Parent Pays for Travel for Visits
- Which Parent Claims the Child/Children on Taxes
- Which Parent Pays for Health and Life Insurance
All of the items above can be considered by the courts and used to adjust child support totals. Within this framework, there is plenty of room to adjust for extracurricular activities, children with special needs, or any issues you and your spouse feel need to be addressed.
Applying for Child Support
in Georgia
In order to ask the court to award child support, you will need the following:
- Child Support Worksheet (accessible through the Georgia’s Child Support Calculator)
- Domestic Relations Financial Affidavit
- Child Support Application (except for divorce or separation cases, which will automatically include child support)
- $25.00 Fee (except for divorce or separation cases where parents receive Medicare or welfare)
- Verification of the Children’s School Enrollment (only for school-age children)
- Birth Certificates (only for children born outside of the state of Georgia)
- Proof of any Retirement, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (RSDI) Benefits Received
- Copies of any Active Child Support Orders
The other parent’s address will need to be included on many of these documents. If you are unsure of their current address or cannot locate them, you can contact your local child support services office to seek assistance.
Parents who were not married to each other at the time of the child’s birth must establish paternity before either individual can apply for child support.
Your parenting plan, when going through a divorce or separation, must include a completed copy of the Child Support Worksheet and Domestic Relations Financial Affidavit.
Modifications to existing child support orders can be made once the order has been active for three or more years. A parent can request to have the order updated by filing a Request for Review of Child Support Order. In order to request modification before the three year period, the requesting parent must prove that a significant, material change in circumstances has occurred, such as the following:
- Loss of Employment
- Change in Income
- Disability
- Imprisonment
- Child Turning 18 (in the past or within the next six months)
The court waives the $100.00 modification fee for parents who receive welfare or earn $1,000.00 or less per month.
Detailed information on child support rules and procedures are outlined in O.C.G.A § 19-6-15.
Enforcement
If you miss child support payments, you can risk being brought back into court. Being 60 or more days behind in payments can result in the suspension of your driver’s license. Other possible penalties can include seizure of your wages or even imprisonment.
One method to ensure that the other parent pays child support as ordered is to apply for an Income Deduction Order. If approved, then child support will automatically be taken from the other parent’s paycheck.
General Child Support Info
You cannot refuse to pay child support to your ex-spouse because they won’t let you see the child/children. Likewise, you cannot withhold visitation from the other parent because they have missed or are behind on child support payments.
Should the parent getting child support also be the recepient of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits, then the state takes a portion of their monthly child support.
In cases of divorce, a parent can request a jury trial to decide child support. The jury will decide whether the guideline award, calculated with the state’s formula, is appropriate in such a situation. These type of trials are rare due to the extra time and costs that they involve.
In most situations, the parent with less custody time must obtain health insurance for the children in question. The court can instead order the other parent to pay if they can get coverage at more reasonable rates.
Each parent involved generally pays half of all large costs not covered by child support, such as medical procedures that are paid for out of pocket.
Should any or all of these steps seem at all daunting, contact LifeLoveLaw today. We will help review your finances, as well as those of your spouse, to determine what the child support contribution for each of you should be. We look at your financial situation in terms of what your children’s needs are and make any adjustments necessary to the proposed contribution.
Whatever happens we will make sure you are treated fairly during this transition.
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