Child Support Guidelines

By: Martin M. Shenkman, CPA, MBA, JD

When negotiating a divorce settlement many states provide laws that set minimum standards for child support. The rules and their application, however, are much more complex that the standards alone may imply. If your income or assets exceed certain thresholds the standards may not apply and different rules or approaches may be possible, or even mandated. Regardless of what the child support guidelines mandate, for many the sad reality is will it be paid. Thus, obtaining competent legal advice to assure that the guidelines are properly applied is only one step. You should also have competent help to ascertain what can be done to assure your ability to collect that support. From the payor's side, there may be concerns that if funds are simply paid to an ex-spouse for child support that the funds really won't be applied for the child. In some cases it might be possible for your attorney to structure the agreement so that you can pay certain expenses for your children directly to assure that the money is properly used.

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