Ask a Lawyer: What Determines the Amount of Child Support in NY?

If you’re involved with the divorce and need to work out issues with child support, always talk with a Queens, NY child support lawyer to get specific information on your unique case. There are some general guidelines to know, however about what goes into calculating child support here in New York.

Calculating Assets and Needs

The first step in making the calculation is figuring out exactly what income the parents have as well as the needs of the children and certain financial obligations that the parents can’t get out of. This gives you your actual amount of net income. Child support is calculated from net income, not total gross income.

To calculate each parent’s income, you look not only at the money they make from their job but also at any pensions, unemployment or worker’s compensation benefits they are collecting, retirement benefits, income from a rental, fellowships or grants, annuities, or any other source of money that’s coming in.

From this, you then deduct certain expenses that the parents are obligated to cover, most obviously taxes. Other things that are deducted might be child support the parent is already paying, alimony payments, or certain expenses that they require to run their business. The final thing to look at is whether the children have any special needs beyond what children ordinarily require, such as if a child has a health condition.

The Formula

In most cases, the state uses a simple formula to calculate how much percentage of the paying parent’s income should be given in child support. In general, the parent who is paying support would be expected to pay 17% of their net income for one child, 25% for two children, 29% for three, 31% for four, and 35% for five or more children.

Exceptions

There are possible exceptions for low-income situations. To find out if you qualify for these exceptions, you must talk with an experienced family law attorney. Generally, however, if paying according to the formula above would reduce the parent’s income to below the federal poverty line, then the court will typically order them to pay just $25 a month. If it would bring them below the New York State poverty line, they would be responsible for a bit more, but still not nearly as much as the formula above would typically require.

Who Pays?

In most cases, the non-custodial parent – i.e., the parent the child is not living with –is the one required to pay child support. However, the court can require either parent to pay for, or share payment for, certain extra expenses that a child might need. These are usually healthcare or educational needs.

If you need help in calculating child support, pursuing a spouse who is failing in their support obligations, or if you need to get your own support payments lowered, contact the Law Offices of Joseph H. Nivin, P.C. in Queens today.  

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