support payments to the
correct amount.
Paying Too Much Child Support?
If your relationship has ended and you're now paying child support, Custody X Change can help you to maximize your parenting time with the children and, depending on your circumstances, help you reduce your monthly child support payment as well.
Lowering Child Support Payments
There probably isn't a day that goes by that a custodial parent somewhere doesn't wish they received more support money from the other parent, thinking that "if only the other parent would pay more, I could afford to provide the better things in life for our children." And, without question, there is a long line of paying parents that feel that the support they pay "is being wasted," wishing there was some way of lowering child support payments.
As with most things in life, the truth (and reason) lies somewhere between, and the good sense underlying the need for an appropriate level of child support is often lost amid accusations of greed and stinginess. What is lost, after all, is that child support is just that, support for "the child."
If both parents had the same incomes, spent exactly the same amount of time with the children, attended the same activities as the other, and in all respects voluntarily provided for the children's needs in exactly the same way, there would never be a need for court ordered child support payments. Few parents, if any, live in that world.
Virtually without exception, one parent makes more than the other, there are differences in the amount or quality of time that each parent spends with the children, and these and other differences must be equalized by one parent making a child support payment to the other. What must be decided is, who is going to pay? But, what is the most important factor? And, what is really fair?
Who Is Going to Pay?
Although every jurisdiction has its own way of determining the amount of child support that is paid, most generally rely heavily on two essential elements: (1) how much time each parent has the children and (2) the incomes of each parent. How courts use these two factors varies widely, from jurisdictions in which the custodial parent always gets awarded child support to jurisdictions where a low-earning non-custodial parent can be awarded child support from a high-earning custodial parent.
Some jurisdictions, such as California, even consider tax consequences in making child support awards. In these jurisdictions, who gets the "deduction" for each child affects the amount of the child support payment. And, if parents aren't careful, both could end up not qualifying to claim dependent exemptions and head of household status.
In a true 50/50 time sharing arrangement, each parent has the children exactly one-half of the time. Because neither parent has the children "more than half" of the time, no one qualifies for head of household status and neither parent may claim a dependency exemption for the children (see, IRS Publication 501). If that happens, the earned income credit, child tax credit, and credit for child and dependent care expenses will be post as well. Although the dependency exemption can be given to a specific parent by written declaration (IRS Form 8332), preserving the credits at least, only the parent with whom a qualifying child actually resides "more than" half the year qualifies as a head of household.
But, cutting all of that away, the person with the least amount of time with the children almost always pays child support.
Computing the "Most Important" Factor-Timeshare
For tax purposes, more than half the year means just that, anything over 50%. And, you will never see a "custodial parent" with less than a 50% timeshare.
In most cases, who has the "most" time is easy to see. But, when a difference in timeshares (in some states as small as 1%) changes the amount of the child support payment, or when you have a 50/50 plan "on paper," but want to be a head of household or claim the dependency exemptions, you better be prepared to prove the exact percentage of time that you have the children. Hours, even minutes, with the children may be the difference between qualifying and not qualifying as the custodial parent or head of household, being the parent entitled to the dependency exemption, or not.
The process of creating, modifying, and calculating a child custody calendar and visitation plan can be very arduous, taking hours upon hours. Because of this, this effort is usually undertaken only in high profile custody battles. In the more common cases, the parents and their attorneys just seem to give up and guess at the timeshare percentage. Even courts resort to tables and rules-of-thumb for estimates.
However, Custody X Change has been designed so that you can quickly and easily create sophisticated child custody calendars and visitation plans, instantly computing timeshares to within less than 1 percent. If there's going to be a dispute over the timeshare percentage, Custody X Change can save you hundreds to thousands of dollars over time, whether by lowering your child support payments to reflect your actual timeshare or by ensuring that you qualify as a head of household or can claim the children as dependents.
Custody X Change is a revolutionary new software program that makes this sort of thing child's play! You enter the visitation plan, however complicated or simple it might be, and it instantly does the timeshare calculation for you. We're not joking when we say it could literally take hours upon hours to do this manually. You've got nothing to lose by accepting a free 30-day trial to make your own parenting plan or to see if your current timeshare is actually what it's supposed to be.
What Is Fair?
Now for the hard part. What is fair? And, fair to whom?
It is the best interests of the children that should always be considered. Each parent has an obligation to provide their fair share of the children's financial needs. That includes purchasing food and clothing for the children when they are in your care, whether you pay child support to the other parent or not. For example, in many states, when a parent has a 20% timeshare, it is assumed that, in addition to the support payment that parent is paying, that parent is also paying for 20% of the child's needs (such as food, clothing, personal items) during his or her parenting time. And, if it's shown that the parent isn't, child support goes up to compensate.
It all comes down to this: play fair. Child support is intended for the benefit of the children, not for a vacation while the children are with the other parent. On the other hand, the children have a right to share in the lifestyle of the high-earning parent. Stinginess only feeds resentment and animosity with the other parent and the children. Parenting is all about sacrifice, taking greed and stinginess out of decisions concerning the welfare of the children.
Fairness and accuracy go hand-in-hand. You simply cannot have one without the other. Guessing at a timeshare percentage invariably leads to a child support payment that is too much or too little, and neither is fair. With Custody X Change there is no guessing, and you can print calendars and reports for the court or the other parent describing your parenting arrangement in detail, including what the timeshare percentage really is. With that in hand, courts will be more inclined to base the child support payment on the correct percentage, and the other parent may even agree to adjust the child support payment voluntarily. This is a win-win outcome for all concerned.