Question about how child support is calculated??

Question

I live in TN and know that here the income of both parents is taken into account before setting the amount of child support. I only work part-time right now and don't have a set amount of hours that I work nor am I guaranteed any. My question is... what is my income figured as?? Would it be calculated at "0" or what?? Would the child support office be able to tell me?

I also want to add that when we went to get the support set, they asked how much I made an hour & how many hours I worked. I told them I didn't have any set hours & they just said okay & wrote some stuff down. They never asked for a check stub or anything either & they didn't ask me what I averaged each week. Just wondering what they set my income as since I'm about to go full time there & I'm sure when my ex finds out he'll have a review of the case done. Will his payments be lowered just because I went full time??

Answer 1

They'll probably eventually ask for pay stubs and take an average, or use your tax return from last year. And once you go full-time, yes, your ex can ask that the support amount be recalculated.

Answer 2

Ok, there are a few things to consider here. Setting the amount of support is only the first step. The basic calculation might by altered based on other factors such as split custody. The standard for earned income is based on what you would earn if you were working full time, less than that is considered voluntary underemployment. In other words, the court (or child support office) will impute hours or income to you in order to meet a basic standard. In my jurisdiction the standard is state minimum wage at full time. Although the minimum might also be based on your previous earning capacity or the mean income in your area. Irregular hours are imputed to an average. Additionally, child support agencies have access to employment security data bases and do not typically need your data to calculate the basic obligation. However, they are required to tell you what their calculation is and what the result is and to provide you an opportunity to dispute it or calcuations used for the other parent's income as well. Typically, once a child support order is enterd it cannot be modified until the passage of a few years unless there are significant changes in circumstances, otherwise parents would be coming back every so often demanding changes, and this fact is part of the reason that income is imputed and averaged. Payments should not be lowered until a new child support order is entered and you have had an opportunity to dispute the change. Call your local child support office with these questions and if you find them less than helpful call your local bar association to see if there is help available for people in your situation, or if you can afford one hire a private attorney to ensure your rights are protected, don't take advice here as the final word.

Answer 3

If they are going off both incomes and yours is going up then I would say it is a very good bet that the payments will be going down.

Answer 4

Look on your state's web site. Most of them have a child support calculator.