Massachusetts Child Support Attorney
Child support law requires the non-custodial parent to contribute financially to child-rearing. It usually consists of fixed regular payments from the non-custodial parent to the custodial parent. The amount can be determined between the parties. However, if there’s no agreement, it’s determined by application of the Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines, which is a calculation involving a number of factors. In addition to the support they pay, non-custodial parents are expected to contribute to the child gifts, transportation, and clothing, which doesn’t count toward child support. Additional expenses for the child may, however, be considered in setting the support amount. On August 1, 2013, new Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines are in effect.
Determining the Amount of Child Support in Massachusetts
Under G.L. c. 208 sec. 28, absent an agreement between the parties or a court order, the Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines are used to determine the payment amount. The guidelines generally apply when one parent has sole physical custody. Child support is based largely on the paying parent’s gross income and the number of children that are part of the support order. There are a number of other considerations (factors), but they don’t carry nearly as much weight.
Factors
Incomes:
Defined very broadly, and includes salaries and wages, trusts, social security, prizes to name only a small few.
Number of Children:
The greater the number the greater the support amount
Child Care Costs:
Applies to both parents
Health Insurance and Extraordinary Medical Expenses:
Also, applies to both parents
Children’s Ages:
Older children are more expensive
Other Support Orders:
The paying parent gets a deduction if he has prior support orders
Attribution of Income:
If the paying parent is not making a reasonable effort at obtaining income, the judge may consider his earnings potential instead of his salary.
Subsequent Families:
Can be a defense to a request for an increase in support, but the paying parent cannot get a lower payment for this reason.
How Payments Are Made
Payments can either be exchanged privately between the parents or through income assignment. Parents have the option of handling payments between themselves. However, the receiving parent always has the option to utilize income assignment, which involves either the paying-parent or his employer (through pay deduction) sending payments to the Department of Revenue (DOR), who then sends it to the custodial parent. A parent that initially agreed to private payments and is not receiving regular payments can always request a change to income assignment. One advantage to having the DOR involved is that they can assist with collection and enforcement.
Modifying Child Support
In general, if the amount recommended by the Guidelines differs from the current payment, the parties are entitled to a modification. Some events that may trigger a different payment amount are a major illness, job loss, a significant pay raise etc.
Failure to Make Payments
If there is an issue with payments, the receiving parent can file a complaint about contempt with the court. After the complaint is filed, a hearing date is set, at which the paying parent must answer to the court for the missing payments. As mentioned above under “How Payments Are Made,” one benefit of using income assignment is that the DOR can assist with collection and enforcement. Despite payment issues between the parents, visitation should not be affected by child support payments (or lack thereof). A major mistake that some parents make is using visitation for leverage on child support issues. The court frowns upon this, and you should never do it.
Termination of Child Support
Payments usually stop when the child reaches age 18 but may continue to age 21 if the child lives with and is dependent on the receiving parent, and may be extended to age 23 if the child is enrolled in an undergraduate education program.
Child support is an important determination in a divorce proceeding because of its significant financial ramifications. Make sure you have a skilled, aggressive attorney that will get you the best result.
Child Support: support for the children, college expenses, tax credits, etc.
When going through a divorce or separation, child support is one of the most important and frequently contested issues. This section contains resources to help you understand your rights and obligations when it comes to child support. This includes information on how child support is calculated, what expenses it covers, what factors can affect the amount of support, college expenses and child tax credits.
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FAQs
Child support is not calculated according to an exact percentage of income. Rather, it’s determined by the MA Child Support Guidelines and its Calculation. Generally, the court considers the parties’ parenting times, which can fall anywhere on a spectrum of no time at all for one parent to approximately shared parenting time.
Once the parenting time is determined, the following numbers are entered into the calculation: the gross incomes of the parties and any allowed deductions, including health, dental and vision insurance, child care costs, and other support obligations (e.g. support for other children, previous alimony obligation). The resulting number is the presumed child support amount.
MA calculates child support using the MA Child Support Guidelines in conjunction with the MA Child Support Worksheet. The Guidelines provide the rules, and the worksheet is the tool used to perform the calculation. https://www.mass.gov/info-details/child-support-guidelines#2018-guidelines,-forms,-and-information-
The amount of child support you receive for 2 kids depends on a number of factors: the parenting time breakdown, and for bother parties, the gross income, the health, dental, and vision insurance costs, work-related child care costs, and other support obligations.
Unfortunately, this data is not available. All information about child support orders are in the individual files for those cases. And to my knowledge, all of this information has not been consolidated for statistical purposes.
No, child support usually ends up taking a rough percentage of your pay. But the calculation is theoretically designed to ensure that the payor can still meet personal living expenses. Certainly, once a child support obligation is in place, sacrifices may need to be made in other areas. But you will not lose your whole paycheck.
Child support in MA is based on gross income from ALL sources. Net income is irrelevant for purposes of the calculation. Net pay can easily be manipulated. Parties can lower their net pay by increasing their exemptions or contributing to their retirement accounts for example. Gross pay is less easily manipulated. Although I’m not sure this is exactly why gross pay is used, it seems like a relevant factor.
No. Having another child can only be used as a defense to a request for an increase by the other party. However, it cannot be used as grounds for decreasing an existing child support amount.
The only way to “get out” of child support is if 1) the other party agrees that you don’t have to pay any and the court approves if there’s a case filed 2) the child becomes emancipated, or 3) someone else adopts your child.
Yes, 50/50 custody may still require a child support payment. In a shared physical custody arrangement (50/50), child support is calculated with running the calculation first with one parent as the primary caretaker, then with the other parent as the primary caretaker. You then subtract the smaller number from the larger, and the difference is the presumptive child support amount the higher earning parent will pay the other.
Yes, when either a change in the custody arrangement (person paying support has substantially more time than at time of previous order) or the child becomes emancipated by law, the payor can file to terminate support.
No, child support is not tax-deductible for the payor, nor is it taxable to the recipient.
ALL income from ANY source is considered income for purposes of child support. This includes regular income for employment, investment earnings including retirement, and any other source of income. The only exception is means-tested public assistance.
The minimum amount of child support is $25 per week as of 2018, and this can be set as the child support amount if the payor is unemployed. However, the court can order an even higher amount with “income attribution,” which can be used by the court when it believes the payor is intentionally unemployed or underemployed. Essentially, the court can treat the payor as if that person were earning more if the court believes that person’s income should be higher.
No, remarriage is not an event that would trigger a reduction in child support. The Child Support Guidelines and Calculation consider only the payor’s income, not the spouse’s. However, the court has the discretion to consider the payor’s spouse’s income and assets in determining if the payor can afford to pay more support for the children – but this is rarely used by the courts.
Typically, any child support arrears accrued have to be paid in full, including interest and penalties if the Department of Revenue is processing it. The recipient may agree to forgive some of the debt. But counting on that is a recipe for disappointment. That’s why it’s so important for the payor to file a complaint for modification whenever there’s a change in circumstance that affects the ability to pay – decreased income, loss of a employment, etc.
Yes, if a mother is either not the primary caretaker or the parties share parenting time and the mother is the higher wage earner, she may be ordered to pay child support. Gender is irrelevant to the child support calculation.
60/40 child custody refers to the breakdown in parenting time. The parent with 60% of the parenting time will usually be considered the primary care parent. This becomes an issue in child support because although there’s a unique calculation for shared physical custody (50/50), the standard calculation is used for 60/40, which may not be fair as 40% of parenting time is a significant amount. However, the judge can deviate from the suggested child support amount if necessary to arrive at a fair amount.
Typically non-custodial parents are obligated to pay child support until the child is emancipated. This applies even when the child is under a guardianship with a non-parent. However, once a parents signs rights to a child away via adoption, financial obligations for the child such as child support and health insurance coverage and payments may be terminated.
Yes. If a parent is paying child support – especially at the Guidelines-recommended amount, the court will typically allow that parent to claim the child for federal and state income tax purposes every other year. However, the court may add a contingency that the parent must be current on child support payments at year-end in order to utilize the tax benefit.
Gifts are not typically included as income for child support purposes. If the “gifts” are regularly recurring and are providing a stream of income to the parent, an argument can be made that it should be considered income. But that’s really not a gift. A typical one-time gift is usually not income.
Yes. You may be jailed for failure to pay child support. When the recipient files a contempt action, if the judge finds a willful violation of the court order, there’s typically an order for the payor to pay an amount within a certain period of time. If there are repeated violations of the court order and the judge feels that the payor is not making sufficient effort and/or disregarding the court’s orders, the judge can order the payor incarcerated and designate a “purge” amount that has to be paid before the payor is released.
You may have to pay child support even if you have joint custody. When parenting time is approximately equal between parents (50/50), the courts use what’s called a “cross-guidelines” calculation for child support. Essentially they calculate child support once with one parent as the primary caretaker, then the other, then subtract the lower result from the higher, and that’s typically the amount that the higher earner has to pay the other. A child support calculator will automatically do this math when the option for shared physical custody is chosen.
Although child support is partially based on the amount of parenting time the payor has, rights to a child and child support are two separate issues. A parent not paying support regularly may still have parenting time and other rights – for example to participate in making major decisions for the child.
On the other hand, paying child support doesn’t necessarily guarantee parenting time and decision-making authority. Generally, the court makes an effort to establish and strengthen the relationship between father and child. However, the court may deny a father rights if it finds that the child’s relationship with the father is not in the child’s best interest. For example, if the father presents a danger to the child, the father may lose all “rights.”
Getting married again generally doesn’t affect child support. A judge may take into account the income and assets of the payor’s new spouse in determining the payor’s ability to pay support. However, the actual numbers – i.e. the other spouse’s income and assets – are not part of the child support calculation.
70/30 child custody refers to the percentage of parenting time breakdown between the parties, in which the primary care parent has the child 70% of the time, and the other parent 30%. This parenting time breakdown typically results in a “full guidelines” child support amount, which is generally ordered on cases in which the parenting time is roughly 2/3 to 1/3.
A mother can typically only keep her child from the father if the level of risk to the child is sufficiently high that the court finds that parenting time is not in the best interest of the child. Even in circumstances in which the court believes there’s physical or emotional risk to the child, the court will attempt to structure a parenting time arrangement that ensures the safety of the child, such as supervised visitation. But if the level of risk is sufficiently high and/or there’s a finding that parenting time would harm the child, the court may allow a mother to keep her child from the father.
You can prove a parent unfit by proving that the parent cannot effectively care for the child. There are many issues that can contribute to a finding of unfitness. For example, a parent may be severely mentally ill, have a substance abuse problem, engage in or allow domestic violence toward the child or in the child’s presence, among other issues. Gathering information about prior incidents of abuse or neglect along with evidence that the parent’s current state is such that the risk of further abuse or neglect is significant is an effective way to build proof of unfitness.
Generally, your ex’s remarrying will not result in an increase in child support, which is based primarily on the gross incomes of the parents and some allowed deductions. However, in determining whether a child support payor can afford support, a judge may take into account the payor’s spouse’s income and assets. But in practice, this rarely makes a difference as judge’s focus on the incomes and allowed deductions for the parties.
The non-custodial parent generally pays child support to the custodial parent based on the MA Child Support Guidelines, which uses a formula that mainly considers the gross incomes of the parties and allows for certain deductions such as health/dental insurance, work-related child care costs, and other support orders.
If the court believes that you’re underemployed, it may use “income attribution” to establish your child support at a level consistent with your earnings capacity. If you intentionally went from earning $150,000/yr to earning $100,000, the court may set child support as if you were still earning $150,000. Technically, the other parent must produce evidence that you can earn more in order for the court to attribute income. However, if it’s obvious that you’re taking a hit in pay solely for the purpose of lowering your support obligation, the court may on its own set your obligation higher.
You must file a complaint about modification asking for a decrease in child support. Usually, this happens when either 1) the child is spending much more time with you than when the last order was entered, or 2) there’s a significant change in your financial circumstances, such as, for example, decreased income or increased and substantial medical or travel expenses.
You must file a complaint about modification asking for the termination of child support. Support will sometimes automatically terminate when the child turns 21. However, it’s advisable to take action with the court to minimize the risk of accumulating arrears. There are a couple of circumstances under which your child support obligation could end. First, your obligation may end if there’s a significant change in your parenting time and you have the child in your care more. Another way child support may end is if the child becomes emancipated: for example, the child moves out of the home and no longer lives with the other parent or joins the military full-time – these are a couple of examples of circumstances that would end your obligation.
