- How is child support determined?
Maryland has adopted child support guidelines. The guidelines are
computed using each parent's “actual income,” adjusted for
(1) preexisting child support actually paid, (2) health insurance premiums
(if child included), (3) alimony (deducted from payor and added to payee).
The outcome is affected by certain expenses which are divided proportionately
based on the parties' incomes: (1) work-related child care, (2) extraordinary
medical expenses, and (3) additional expenses (which may include: special
or private school, transportation between parents' homes).
- What counts as income for computing child support?
"Actual income," which is what counts for computing child
support, means income from any source. "Actual income" includes:
(i) Salaries; (ii) Wages; (iii) Commissions; (iv) Bonuses;
(v) Dividend income; (vi) Pension income; (vii) Interest income;
(viii) Trust income; (ix) Annuity income; (x) Social Security benefits;
(xi) Workers' compensation benefits; (xii) Unemployment insurance
benefits; (xiii) Disability insurance benefits; and (xiv) Alimony
or maintenance
received. "Actual income" is not limited to these categories.
Read more FAQs about expense reimbursements or in-kind payments,
self-employment income, overtime and other categories.
- What about company-paid cars, business expense accounts, and other
business expenses?
Expense reimbursements or in-kind payments received by a parent
in the course of employment, self-employment, or operation of a business
to the extent the reimbursements or payments reduce the parent's personal
living expenses are included in “actual income.”
- How is income from self-employment or a small business figured?
For income from self-employment, rent, royalties, proprietorship
of a business, or joint ownership of a partnership or closely held corporation, "actual
income" means gross receipts minus ordinary and necessary expenses
required to produce income.
- Are there any other kinds of income which can be included?
Based on the circumstances of the case, the court may consider the
following items as actual income: (i) Severance pay; (ii) Capital gains;
(iii) Gifts; or (iv) Prizes. For example, in one case where a parent
had received regular subsidies from his mother for a long period of
time, these subsidies were included in his “actual income.” However,
in another case, where a mother’s live-in boyfriend paid toward
bills for rent, electricity, cable, telephone service, and trash removal,
the payments were not included in her “actual income.”
- Does overtime income count?
Money earned by working overtime as a regular part of a parent's
employment constitutes "actual income" for purposes of determining
child support payments, but this additional income cannot be speculative
or uncertain.
- How are child care expenses determined?
Child care expenses are determined based on actual family experience,
unless the court finds that the actual family experience is not in the
child’s best interest. If there is no actual family experience,
or the court finds that the actual family experience is not in the child’s
best interest, then child care expenses are set at the lesser of what
it would cost to provide quality care from a licensed source, or the
actual cost of care chosen by the custodial parent.
- Is use of the guidelines required?
Child support guidelines do not apply when the parents have a monthly
combined adjusted income in excess of $10,000. Otherwise, the result
obtained by applying the guidelines is presumed to be correct. Departure
from results obtained using the child support guidelines is permitted
only when application of the guidelines would be unjust or inappropriate.
For example, the court may depart from the child support guidelines
to cover the costs of reasonable and necessary educational programs
for an academically challenged or gifted student who requires remedial
tutoring or advanced programming to meet his or her particular educational
needs.
- Does the amount of time a child spends with each parent affect
child support?
Yes. If a child spends more than 35% of overnights (128 overnights
per year) with each parent, special guidelines are used to compute child
support.
- Can a parent avoid owing child support by taking a lower paying
job or choosing an alternative lifestyle?
A parent who chooses a life of poverty—for example, by taking
a lower paying job—and makes a deliberate choice not to alter
that status is "voluntarily impoverished." Whether the parent
decides to reduce his or her income in order to avoid paying child support
or the parent chooses a frugal lifestyle for another reason doesn't
affect that parent's obligation to the child. A parent must support
his or her child, if the parent has, or reasonably could obtain, the
means to do so. The law requires a parent who is able to do so to alter
his or her chosen lifestyle if necessary to enable the parent to meet
his or her support obligation.
- What if the parties’ combined income exceeds $10,000?
Child support guidelines do not apply when the parents have a monthly
combined adjusted income in excess of $10,000. In this situation, factors
which should be considered when setting child support include the financial
circumstances of the parties, their station in life, their age and physical
condition, and expenses in educating the children.
- Is child support affected by whether the child was born in or out
of wedlock?
A child born out of wedlock is entitled to the same level of support
as would be afforded to a child who is the product of a marriage.
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