Besides being emotionally draining, divorce definitely strains your wallet too. Even after paying court fees and retainers for both spouses’ attorneys (yep, you may have to pay for both lawyers), the costs keep on coming even after your case is settled. If you have children, or if one spouse makes a significant amount of money more than the other, says divorce attorney Arnold Goldstein, of Goldstein Law Offices in Illinois, you can almost guarantee that one party will be forwarding a considerable portion of his income every month to his ex-spouse.
But why is this so? Well, says Goldstein, just because you are divorced doesn’t mean you can relinquish all of your child-rearing responsibilities. Here, he explains how the price of child support is calculated. In Illinois for example, he says, child support is a percentage of the noncustodial parent’s (the parent who does not have primary custody of the children) net income. Like many other states, Illinois uses a table referred to as the minimum guide line of support to calculate the minimum amount of child support that must be paid, Goldstein explains. The table dictates that:
- If you have one child, you must pay at least 20% of your net income.
- If you have two children, you must pay at least 28% of your net income.
- If you have three children, you must pay at least 32% of your net income.
- If you have four children, you must pay at least 40% of your net income.
- If you have five children, you must pay at least 45% of your net income.
- If you have more than five children, you must pay 50% of your net income.
Net income, as Goldstein explains, refers to the amount of money that you take home after state and federal taxes, Medicaid and Social Security have all been deducted from your paycheck. Essentially, he adds, taxes can eat up 30% of your gross income. And, if you have three children and are being forced to pay another 32% of your income for child support, you now have to live off of less than half of your paycheck. It’s a definite hit. And, when it comes to child support, Goldstein says, the primary parent’s income is not even considered.
Under the regulations written into the Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act, the above percentages shall be applied to every divorce case unless the court concludes that the amounts would not benefit the best interests of the child. The amount can be reconsidered when a few other factors are introduced into the case, including:
- The financial resources and needs of the child.
- The standard of living that the child would have enjoyed if the marriage had not ended.
- The physical and emotional condition of the child.
- The child’s educational needs.
If the court does choose to stray from the original guidelines, then they must outline what the mandated child support would have been, why the changes were made, how the new “net income” was determined, and how the final amount of child support was decided.
It’s important to speak with your attorney at length when it comes to deciding child support payments, Goldstein advises. Even though it may seem like a large portion of one spouse’s paycheck, you also must consider how the children’s doctor’s visits will be paid for, how extracurricular activities will be handled, and how the child’s college education will be funded, all of which aren’t even considered in those minimal guidelines. It’s crucial, he says, that you decide on these topics now — even if your child has not even started elementary school — because it can be difficult to change these terms down the road.
This article is for informational purposes only. You should not rely on this article as a legal opinion on any specific facts or circumstances, and you should not act upon this information without seeking professional counsel. Neither publication of this article nor your receipt of this article creates an attorney-client relationship.
