Lower the income, lower the child support: Indiana Child Support Guidelines

With the waive of a wand your divorce attorney can magically adjust your income to lower your child support obligation ... with some long words, a little posturing and a legal technicality your attorney can make your child support go away!  

Of course, this is not true, nor should it be.  While the child support payor might like to underpay his/her obligation, this would be horrible for children.  Yet, when faced with an obligation that looks too high the prospective payor will undoubtedly ask - what can we do to lower this?  Usually, nothing.  The numbers are the numbers, and for good reason the numbers are standardized and predictable.  But the Indiana Child Support Guidelines do allow for a "magically" adjustment to account for the 21.88% tax factor on which the Guidelines are based: 

In devising the Indiana Guidelines, an average tax factor of 21.88 percent was used to adjust the support column. Of course, taxes vary for different individuals. This is the case whether a gross or net income approach is used. Under the Indiana Guideline, where taxes vary significantly from the assumed rate of 21.88 percent, a trial court may choose to deviate from the guideline amount where the variance is substantiated by evidence at the support hearing.

When making this adjustment do you use the payor's effective tax rate or their tax bracket based on their income? A recent case answered this question as follows: 

He asserts that his federal tax bracket is 28%, but the trial court found that his federal tax obligation, as a percentage of his income, was only 23.3%. The trial court was correct. The Child Support Guidelines speak in terms of tax rates, not tax brackets.

See this a previous post that explains how this adjustment can be used to adjust the income not only high earners, but also lower earners.  Additionally, these adjustment can be made to either parent's incomes, not only the paying parent.  Adjusting the non-paying parent's income could have a significant effect on the child support obligation. 

For more on child support, including discussions on how the Indiana Child Support Guidelines were amended on January 1, 2010, and links to child support calculators, see our postings on child support. 

County Court Records Online

Fortunately, Indiana has great online resources to allow attorneys and non-attorneys access to court dockets.  Unfortunately, at least at this time, these resources are not consolidated at one online location.  We've added a new page to the blog titled "Courts Online."  This page has links to many of the online resources available to review information of cases in Indiana courts.

We've linked directly to the county courts we use most. If you do not see your county listed check the "Doxpop" or "Odyssey" links.

We've also linked to the appellate courts recent opinions and the online docket.

Hopefully, you find this page helpful.

Who pays for school supplies, clothes and fees? Indiana Child Support and Custody Law

It’s time to go back to school and a recent survey found that the average amount spent on back-to-school supplies and clothes is approximately $600.00 per child.  In terms of consumer spending, back-to-school shopping is only eclipsed by christmas/holiday shopping.

When parents are divorced, or were never married and live separately, who pays for the school supplies and clothes?

Some court/support orders set out who pays for what specifically in the order, but most do not.  For those that do not, the default is that the primary custodial parent pays for these items. Why? Because that parent generally is the parent who receives support (for an exception read this) the child support guidelines are premised on the assumption that the custodial parent bears these costs. The purchase of these items is one of the reasons the primary custodial parent receives child support.

However, if the parents share physical custody and there is not a primary custodian, then they must decide who is going to be responsible for the "controlled expenses". The guidelines define controlled expenses as follows:

Controlled Expenses. This type of expense for children is typically paid by the custodial parent and is not transferred or duplicated. Controlled expenses are items like clothing, education, school books and supplies, ordinary uninsured health care and personal care. For example, the custodial parent buys a winter coat for the child. The noncustodial parent will not buy another one. The custodial parent controls this type of expense. The controlled expenses account for 15% of the cost of raising the child. The parenting time credit is based on the more time the parents share, the more expenses are duplicated and transferred. The controlled expenses are not shared and remain with the parent that does not get the parenting time credit. Controlled expenses are generally not a consideration unless there is equal parenting time.

If you have a child in private school or some other type of special school these costs are considered separately.   The guidelines call these "extraordinary educational expenses" and provide as follows:

Extraordinary educational expenses may be for elementary, secondary or post‑secondary education, and should be limited to reasonable and necessary expenses for attending private or special schools, institutions of higher learning, and trade, business or technical schools to meet the particular educational needs of the child.

 a. Elementary and Secondary Education. If the expenses are related to elementary or secondary education, the court may want to consider whether the expense is the result of a personal preference of one parent or whether both parents concur; if the parties would have incurred the expense while the family was intact; and whether or not education of the same or higher quality is available at less cost.

In any case, the best practice as to school costs is to have the payment of these costs detailed in the support order.  Otherwise, if the costs are to be shared, make sure the costs are discussed prior to being incurred so that each parent knows their responsibility. If an impasse occurs, mediation is a great way to resolve the dispute. For a video regarding mediation, see here.