Child Support

Child Support

Child support represents the noncustodial parent’s financial responsibility to his or her child and the child’s other parent. Child support is set by the court, and is based on both parents’ financial situations and may take into consideration the financial needs and expenses of the children.

If you are seeking an experienced child support attorney in Rockville (Montgomery County, MD) or the District of Columbia during this process, contact the Law Firm of Wendy Satin today. With the help of an experienced and qualified child support lawyer, you can ensure an equitable outcome for all parties.

Child support is a court-ordered payment requiring one parent who does not have custody of the child to the other parent who does have custody of the child. A court may also order child support to be paid when parents share custody of a child. Child support payments help pay for the costs associated with raising the child. Children have the right to benefit from the incomes of both parents.  Child support is usually, but not always, calculated in a manner consistent with the Maryland Child Support Guidelines.  The Maryland legislature enacted the Maryland Child Support Guidelines to uniformly establish the amount of child support to be paid by one parent to the other parent.  The Maryland Child Support Guidelines take into consideration each parent’s actual gross (pre-tax) income as well as the following:

(A) preexisting child support actually paid;

(B) health insurance premiums;

(C) alimony (either paid in your current case or another case you are involved in);

(D) Work-related child care expenses (Daycare, After school, etc.;

(E) extraordinary medical expenses;

(F) additional expenses (which may include: special or private school, transportation between parents’ homes)

The amount of child support paid in any given case can be greatly affected by the amount of overnight access the “non-custodial” parent has with the child.  If the “non-custodial” parent has at least 128 overnights per year or 35 percent of the time with either parent, then the Court utilizes at separate formula recognizing more of a shared cost approach to determine Child support which changes for each additional overnight.

Gross (pre-tax) income includes, but is not limited to the following:

(A) Salaries;

(B) Wages;

(C) Commissions;

(D) Bonuses;

(E) Dividend income;

(F) Pension income;

(G) Interest income;

(H) Trust income;

(I) Annuity income;

(J) Social Security benefits;

(K) Workers’ compensation benefits;

(L) Unemployment insurance benefits;

(M) Disability insurance benefits;

(N) Alimony or maintenance received.

(O) Regular payments received from a relative (You parents send you money every month);

(P) Other fringe benefits from employment, i.e. automobile, cell phone, cable or internet service etc. that you might have paid for even if you did not have your current job)

Imputation of Gross Income

The Court expects each party to a suit which includes a request for child support to be employed to capacity. A person required to pay child support may not deliberately quit his job to avoid Child Support. This is called involuntary impoverishment.  A person who is willfully underemployed or unemployed (voluntarily impoverished) may have income imputed to him/her.  In addition, the Court can fine the non-paying parent in contempt of Court and incarcerate them for failure to pay child support. The Maryland office of Child support can ask for a tax intercept of any tax refunds, pull their right to drive in Maryland and even deny them the right to a certain travel/passport/visa rights if the arrearage reaches a certain amount thru state and federal reporting systems.