|
For legislative recent developments, visit our
divorce blogger In May, 2005,
the state senate and house passed a bill with sweeping changes to Minnesota’s
current child support system and its child support laws. That bill was
subsequently signed into law by Governor Pawlenty. Now that the bill has become
law, it will not be effective until January 1, 2007. Modifications of existing
child support obligations may not be available for most parties until January 1,
2008. The new law creates some unclear areas that will ultimately be refined
through litigation and case law.
Some Key Terms in Minnesota's Child Support Law
The general legal concept of "child support" is made up of
three (3) parts:
-
Basic support = costs for a child's
housing, food, clothing, transportation, and education costs, and other
expenses to care for the child
-
Medical support = health insurance and other medical/dental
costs
-
Child
care support = child care costs when parents go to work or
school
- "Joint child" is a dependent legal child of both
parents in the support action.
-
"Non-joint child" is a dependent legal child of one,
but not both parents, in a support action. [NOTE: A step-parent is not
considered the "legal" parent of his/her step-child, unless the step-parent
legally adopted the child.]
Important Child Support Factors in Minnesota
- The Income Shares formula includes the gross income
of BOTH parents in figuring the amount of child support.
- The amount of court-ordered parenting time (visitation)
is considered in calculating "basic support." If a parent has the child
between 10% and 45% of the time, the parent gets a 12% adjustment
(reduction) in child support owed. If the parenting time is less than 10%,
there is no adjustment to child support. Percentage of time is generally
calculated by counting overnights the child spends with the parent.
- The law presumes that both parents can or should work
and earn an income. The Income Shares formula considers this
"potential income" as a factor in determining support.
- By law, if the parties do not provide specific details about their
income, the court will set child support based on other available evidence,
including past work experience, the current legal minimum wage, or it
will set a minimum amount provided for in the law.
Some of the critical changes are summarized
below :
Financial Affidavit Form Required
If parents with joint children are parties to a
court action involving child support, the law now
requires that each parent complete a
Financial Affidavit showing all sources of
income. Each parent must
serve the other party and file
the Financial Affidavit with the court along with
their initial pleadings or motion documents. A party
must use the Financial Affidavit form provided by
the Department of Human Services, and the form and
instructions can be downloaded from the DHS website
by clicking
Financial Affidavit Form.
Six Month
Review of Court Orders. Every family court order or divorce judgment that
addresses the issues of child support, custody or parenting time will include an
attached form and instructions for either party to seek a review of the order
after a six month period. Once that written request for review is filed with the
Court Administrator, a hearing date will be scheduled. At that hearing, the
Court may impose penalties for contempt on either party based on their failure
to comply with the court orders. The hearing is designed to review the following
issues:
1.
Child Support. Whether child support is current. The burden of
demonstrating that child support is current will fall upon the person paying
support. He/she may request an accounting of child support from the child
support enforcement office no less than 14 days prior to the hearing;
2.
Parenting Time. Whether both parties are complying with the parenting
provisions of the Court order.Minnesota Child
Support Guidelines. Under the new
law, the child support system has changed dramatically. In the past, the label
of “custody” was all important to determinations of child support. If one parent
was awarded “primary physical custody” as part of a court order, the other
parent was required to pay full guideline child support based on their net
income regardless of the amount of time that he/she spent with the child. The
end result was often a battle over the label of “custodial parent” rather than a
concentration on the parenting schedule itself. That has all changed.
Under the new
law, child support guidelines will again form a rebuttable presumption regarding
the level of support that should be paid. Unlike the old law, however, child
support guidelines will now be based on the “gross income” of both
parents and the “parenting time” for each regardless of the “custody”
label. The combined incomes of the parents is referred to as
“Parental Income for Child Support” or “PICS.”
Every order that
applies the new child support laws must also indicate the percentage of time
that each parent spends with the child under the existing parenting schedule.
Where an order does not specify parenting time it is rebuttably presumed that
each parent has the children with them at least 25% of the time.
Child support
that is paid under the new statutory guidelines is specifically designated as a
payment for “basic support.” Basic support relates to the child’s housing, food,
clothing, transportation, education costs and other expenses related to the
child’s care. It specifically excludes costs related to child care (daycare) and
medical/dental expenses. There are two systems for computing child support under
the new guidelines. One system applies where the parents do not have equal
parenting time and second system applies where the parents have equal parenting
time.
SYSTEM ONE:
Parenting Time is not Equal.
The computation
of child support where the parents do not have presumed equal parenting time can
be calculated as follows:
-
Determine the gross income of
each parent.
-
Calculate the parental income for
determining child support (PICS) of each parent, by subtracting from the
gross income the credit, if any, for each parent's nonjoint children under
section
518A.33;
-
determine the percentage contribution
of each parent to the combined PICS by dividing the combined PICS into each
parent's PICS.
-
determine the combined basic support
obligation by application of the guidelines below.
In other words, multiply
the presumptive child support amount by the percentage of the total income
represented by each parent’s individual income. In essence determine each
parents proportionate share of total income. This can be accomplished by
using each parent’s monthly gross income as the numerator and dividing by
gross income as the denominator. For example, if mom earns $2,000 gross per
month and dad earns $3,000 gross per month, the total income is $5,000 per
month. Child support for one child is presumed to be $780.00 per month. That
figure is divided proportionate to income. For dad, that would be
$3,000/5000 or 60%. As a result, his obligation would be $780.00 x .6 =
468.00. For mom it would be 40% or $312.00. Since dad has the greater
obligation, he is the obligor and would pay support to mom. There is no
offset of the amounts
-
determine the obligor's share of the
basic support obligation by multiplying that parents proportionate share of
the total income by the combined basic support obligation set forth in the
child support table; and
-
determine the parenting expense
adjustment, if any, as provided in by the
NonJoint children Adjustment.
That means you apply a
parenting time adjustment. If the parent has the child less than 10% of the
time there is no adjustment. If the parent has the child 10 percent to 45
percent of the time, there is a 12% adjustment. If the parent has the child
45.1 percent of the time to 50 percent of the time, it is presumed that the
parenting time is equal. The calculation for equal parenting will be
discussed in more detail below. Using the example above, if dad has the
children 30% of the time, his obligation is reduced as follows: 468 x .12=
56.16; 468 - 56.16= $411.84. As a result, dad would pay child support to mom
in the amount of $411.84 per month.
| |
Percentage Range of
|
Adjustment
|
|
|
Parenting Time
|
Percentage
|
|
(i)
|
less than 10 percent
|
no adjustment
|
|
(ii)
|
10 percent to 45 percent
|
12 percent
|
|
(iii)
|
45.1 percent to 50 percent
|
presume parenting time is equal |
If Social Security benefits or veterans'
benefits are received by one parent as a representative payee for a joint child
based on the other parent's eligibility, the court shall subtract the amount of
benefits from the other parent's net child support obligation, if any. See
Social Security and Veterans Benefits.
SYSTEM TWO:
Parenting Time is Equal.
Parents that
have presumed equal parenting time (45.1 to 50 percent of the time) would pay no
child support if their incomes were also equal. If their incomes are not equal,
the parent with the greater income would pay child support as follows
-
Multiply
the combined basic support in the
table by 0.75;
-
Prorate the amount between the parents
based on each parent's proportionate share of the combined PICS; and
-
Subtract the lower amount from the
higher amount.
The resulting figure is the obligation
after parenting expense adjustment for the parent with the greater parental
income for determining child support.
WHAT ABOUT
CHILDREN FROM OTHER RELATIONSHIPS?
See Article regarding
NonJoint Children.
WHAT HAPPENS IF THE OTHER PARENT REFUSES TO WORK FULL TIME?
See Article regarding
Potential Income.
|
|
