Child Support in New York State
Section
240 of the Domestic Relations Law and Family Court Act Section 413 contain the
Child Support Standards Act (CSSA).It provides that the court shall calculate
the "basic child support obligation" and the non-custodial parents pro rata
share thereof unless the court concludes after considering ten listed factors
that the" basic child support obligation" is unjust or inappropriate.If the
court considers it unjust or inappropriate the court must state why and set a
support amount it believes is proper.
In
arriving at the "basic child support obligation" the court must calculate the
combined parental income less social security and New York City taxes. The court
uses for income the amount which was or should have been most recently reported
on the federal tax return.
The child
support percentages are:
The above
amounts are mandated up to the first $80,000 of combined parental income.After
that it is discretionary and the court may fix additional support on additional
income earned up to an amount necessary for the reasonable needs of the
children.Once the total dollar amount of support is calculated as above, then
the non-custodial parent pays the custodial parent his/her pro-rata share of the
above amount of child support.
If the
parties choose to they may settle their dispute by agreeing on an amount which
varies from the above and the court will normally approve their settlement.
Normally
the court will also fix the parties pro-rata shares of reasonable child care
expenses incurred as a result of the custodial parent 's employment, or seeking
of employment or attending school to become employed.The court will also
normally fix the parties pro-rata shares of the cost of medical insurance for
the children and the cost of the unreimbursed medical expenses for the
children.The pro-rata shares are determined by calculating what each parents
income is percentage wise to the total income.
