How Is NJ Child Support Calculated?

How Is NJ Child Support Calculated?

Child Support Attorneys Bergen County, NJ

How Child Custody Affects a Child Support Agreement

Child support and how it is calculated during a divorce has been standardized across New Jersey. While there is still a small amount of leeway when calculating child support, in general, the amount of child support that you will pay, or receive, will be strictly based on several set factors.

However, the method in which you pay or receive child support, and how often your child support agreement is recalculated based on inflation is open for discussion. By having an experienced attorney on your side when deciding your child support agreement, you can better understand what these different methods are, which one makes the most sense in your unique situation, and ultimately secure the child support agreement that best meets you and your family’s unique needs and concerns.

At The Law Office of Townsend, Tomaio & Newmark, our attorneys have extensive experience helping parents to draft fair, effective, and situation-specific child support agreements in towns across New Jersey and Bergen County, including Ridgewood, Paramus, Teaneck, Hackensack, and Fort Lee.

How Child Custody Affects Child Support Agreements

As previously mentioned, New Jersey’s child support guidelines make calculating child support relatively standardized in divorces across New Jersey. The first thing that needs to be taken into consideration when calculating child support is the child custody and visitation agreement.

The amount of child support the supporting parent will be expected to pay is first based on the percentage of time the supporting parent is expected to spend with their children, as well as whether or not the supporting parent has shared custody (28% or more of overnight time per year with their children) or sole parenting (the supporting parent has less than 28% of overnight time per year with their children).

With this in mind, our Bergen County child custody attorneys can help you to not only reach a child custody agreement and visitation plan that works for you, but they may also help you to take this plan into account when calculating your child support agreement.

Calculating Child Support

Now that you understand how your child custody agreement will affect child support, we can discuss calculating your child support agreement itself.

Child support is calculated based upon:

  • The amount of time each parent is expected to spend with their children
  • Each parents’ yearly gross income
  • The marital status of each parent
  • The age of the child(ren)

One important distinction here is the idea of “gross income”. This refers to each parents’ income after things like taxes, mandatory union fees, and any previously existing child support orders have been deducted.

Deviating from New Jersey Child Support Guidelines

Finally, while the child support guidelines have roughly standardized child support agreements based on the factors mentioned above, there are scenarios when a family court is allowed to deviate from these guidelines. These scenarios include:

  • Taking into account the special needs of the children
  • One household needing to support more than six children
  • Un-reimbursed medical expenses of either parent
  • Educational expenses of the children

If a court feels there is a reason to deviate from the guidelines, they must state their reason for the deviation in their final Child Support Order, and of course, any such decision may be open to a family law appeal if a parent feels the court erred in their judgment or abused their discretion.

Contact Our Hackensack Child Support Lawyers Today

At Townsend, Tomaio & Newmark, our attorneys have extensive experience helping parents to draft, modify, and enforce child support agreements. By practicing exclusively family and divorce law, our firm can focus on providing the knowledgeable, effective, and compassionate legal service that you and your family need and deserve in such often very critical matters. Our legal team features many attorneys regularly nominated to the Super Lawyers* list as it relates to family law, signifying the industry and peer recognition of their professional achievements, legal knowledge, and ability to work with clients. Contact our firm today to learn how we can help.

*Our attorneys have received the honor of being included in the Super Lawyers and/or Super Lawyers Rising Stars list(s) published by Thomson Reuters, relative to being divorce attorneys. Their dates of inclusion are noted on the individual attorney pages. The qualifications or requirements for being included on said list can be viewed here.

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