Category: Child Support

Temporary vs. Permanent: You can receive child support once you’ve filed for divorce, and before you finish your divorce. Child support paid before you divorce is called temporary child support. You may need temporary child support because you are unable to financially support your children by yourself while you are divorcing.    You can receive temporary […]

Mandatory and Discretionary Expenses: There are qualifying expenses that are in addition to the guideline child support amount. These are called add-ons, either mandatory or additional. Mandatory must be included in the child support order. Additional add-ons are sometimes referred to as discretionary and depend on your agreement or whether a judge will order them.  […]

Non-Guideline Child Support: There are a few exceptions to guideline child support. A judge has the option to order non-guideline support when guideline is not the right amount to meet your child’s needs. This may happen when a parent has extraordinarily high income; the guideline amount doesn’t fairly reflect the custodial time; or the judge […]

Calculating Child support: The child support formula is in Family Code Section 4055. The formula takes the parents’ custodial time and their total net disposable income to calculate support. Net disposable income is the money you have after you paid taxes.  You can figure out your net disposable income by subtracting the taxes you owe, […]