Child Support Payment – Child Care

Question:

There are a lot of CS calculators and discussions regarding child support payments.
My question is when the calculator shows a figure based on incomes, is that including or excluding child care (ie day care or nanny) costs?
I read PA law excerpts that seem to say it excluded, meaning if a judge calculates an award he will take what the calculator tells him and add to it an amount for child care expenses (day care or nanny etc) based on %’s of net incomes for each spouse. What’s the deal? I keep hearing everyone say their payments are $1000 or $1500 per month and with child care most of the “calculators” that seem to be worth anythingare showing at my income level that my payment is in the mi $3,000’s per month, which seems outrageous.

Answer:

I am not licensed to practice in PA. I would strongly recommend contacting an attorney in PA to determine how PA handles day care expense.
In Indiana, daycare is incorparated in the child support calculation. There is not a separate order for daycare. However, because of the way daycare is placed in the formula you are basicaly paying support + a percentage of daycare (based on your percentage of income). Indiana utilizes an income share model for support. If daycare is incorporated into the child support calculation it will make you child support much higher than a calculation without daycare. Which is probably why you are seeing such a disparity in child support amounts.
End of Content Icon

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *