The number of children, the number of nights the children spend with you, your income, and the income of the other parent are all factors in the child support calculation. What is child support supposed to cover? Does tuition come with it?
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It is not a factor to decide what to spend money on or how to spend it. You will need to negotiate with the other parent if there are any specific expenses you need to pay for, such as school expenses, sports equipment, or extracurricular activities. You cannot simply request the child support formula be amended to incorporate any particular things. Speak to your lawyer if you don’t like your child support payments.
How Do Courts Come Up With A Child Support Amount
Unless the result would be unfair or improper, the judge must order support in accordance with the Michigan Child Support Formula. You must persuade the judge that the Formula amount would be unfair or improper, even if you and the other parent consent to a variation (a support amount different from the Formula computation).
The Michigan Child Support Formula is used to determine the amount of child support. It considers the following elements:
- [a] Parents’ earnings
- [b] How many “overnights” a child spends with each parent in a given year
- [c] The number of children who were helped
- [d] Healthcare expenses
- [e] Childcare expenses
- [f] Other factors
The twenty deviation criteria (included in the Michigan Child Support Formula Manual) that could make the Formula amount unjust or incorrect are listed. These can be found in the Manual’s Section 1.04(E). If any of these circumstances apply to your case and you want to urge the court to deviate from the Formula, mention them at your hearing and make reference to them in your Deviation Addendum.
You will need legal assistance with this. It can be challenging to provide evidence why the Formula should be changed.
The Uniform Child Support Order Deviation Addendum is an additional form that must be completed if you are requesting a deviation. Bring the completed Uniform Child Support Order and the form to your court appearance.
A judge issues a Uniform Child Support Order or UCSO to begin paying child support. The UCSO will have the following functions:
- [a] Base support
- [b] Medical support
- [c] Childcare expenses
Both parents’ net incomes and the number of overnights spent with children are taken into account when determining the base support amount.
When there is no consensus on the number of overnights or when a parent’s income is not clear, determining a child support amount is frequently a contentious subject between the parents. The amount of support imposed is typically insufficient for the payee and feels burdensome to the support payor, regardless of whether they eventually come to an agreement on a support amount or the court orders one.
When payors discover that child support does not fully cover their children’s expenditures, they are frequently shocked. Typically, just the costs of housing, clothes, and food are covered by child support.
How Does The Court Enforce the UCSO
Child support payments are gathered and dispersed by the Friend of the Court or FOC and the Michigan State Disbursement Unit (MiSDU). Most of the time, child support payments are automatically deducted from the payer’s paycheck and sent to the payee by MiSDU. When support is paid in this manner, a copy of the income withholding order is given to both the payer and the payee.
Sometimes it is impossible to withhold money because the payer is a self-employed person or for other factors. There are alternative payment options in those circumstances. Payments can be sent directly to MiSDU by the payer or, in very rare circumstances, to the FOC.
The parties may occasionally accept an alternative payment plan. Payments made outside of MiSDU or the FOC must be reported to the FOC by the payee in order for the payer to get credit.
Whether a child support order is ex parte, temporary, permanent, or a revision of an earlier order, a UCSO is still enforceable. Only past-due support payments, or “arrearages,” may be collected using some enforcement techniques. Methods of enforcement comprise:
- [a] Deducting money from a payer’s paychecks.
- [b] Attaching a lien to the real or personal property of the payer.
- [c] Garnishing refunds of state and federal taxes
- [d] Suspending a license for driving, a job, a sport, or other activities
If the payer fails to make a payment and income withholding is ineffective or not an option, the payee or a friend of the court may file a motion to show cause. If the judge determines that the payer is capable of paying all or part of the debt, they may be held in contempt of court. Jail terms and heavy fines are the most common sanctions for contempt.
What Specific Expenses Are Included in the UCSO
The Supreme Court Administrator’s Office was obliged by the Michigan Friend of the Court Act of 1982 to develop a formula that would serve as a guideline for recommending child support. The child support formula in Michigan was developed by a committee of family law attorneys, psychologists, public health authorities, and members of the general public after extensive research and with the help of economists.
It became effective in Michigan in 1984. The document’s official title is “Michigan Child Support Formula,” however the term “guidelines” is considerably more frequently used. The recommendations are based on the expected costs of raising children in Michigan, taking into account the number of children and the parents’ combined income.
Base Support
Both parents’ net incomes and the number of overnights spent with children are taken into account when determining the base support amount. The court calculates base support using the total number of children in common to distribute support payments for children of the same parents, whether ordered in a single case or multiple cases.
The court divides the basic support for the children in a parent’s custody from the base support for those who reside with a nonparent-custodian when some of the children-in-common are in the nonparent’s care.
Medical Support
Medical support comprises regular and supplemental medical costs, health insurance, and premium sharing. Regular medical costs include copays and deductibles for uninsured medical costs. Parental care costs like over-the-counter medications and first aid supplies are excluded from regular medical costs. The average cost of medical care for one child is $454 per year.
Uninsured charges over and beyond the annual cap on typical medical expenses are referred to as additional medical expenses. The UCSO refers to these extra costs as uninsured health care charges. Typically, a percentage of increased medical costs is allocated to each parent based on their income.
Child Care Expenses
When the parties have an established pattern for child care and can attest to their actual, predictable, and reasonable child care expenses, childcare reimbursement amounts are based on actual costs.
One of the parents will be required by the court to supply the child with health insurance. This private insurance may be supplied as a perk of employment, purchased, or obtained in another way from a parent’s spouse or other household member. Or, in some circumstances, it might be public insurance like Medicaid or MIChild. To decide which parent should provide coverage, the court will take into account a number of variables from the Michigan Child Support Formula Manual.
Day Care Expenses
Daycare costs are split between the parties in accordance with their respective salaries under the Michigan Child Support Formula. Additionally, the court will only order the payer to pay for child care that is required due to the payee’s employment or educational obligations. The cost of child care is typically factored into the amount that the payer pays through MiSDU, while it is also typical for the parties to make their own separate payments to the childcare facility.
Extracurricular Activities
Extracurricular activities are supported by child support in accordance with the Michigan Child Support Formula. But when the activities and costs are agreed upon by both parties, many parties also agree to split the cost of these outlays in addition to the amount of child support.
Education Expenses
In Michigan, a parent’s obligation to pay child support may extend to covering costs for child care, education, and other health-related expenses, as well as any necessary medical costs associated with the mother’s pregnancy or the child’s birth and the cost of genetic testing.
Books, materials, and even private tuition payments for elementary, middle, and high school are included in the cost of education.
Does college count as part of the cost of education?
If you’re going through a Michigan divorce and wondering if you or your ex will have to pay for college, you should be aware that state law in Michigan does not consider college costs or payments to be part of child support.
Apparently, it is not the level of education which actually matters. It is the age of the child. You should be aware that, unlike some other states, Michigan does not specifically provide for the inclusion of educational expenses in a divorce case.
The only statutory exception is when the child turns 18 while still enrolled in high school and stays there full-time. Even though the child is still in high school in these scenarios, child support will terminate when the child turns 19 years and 6 months old.
However, there are specific circumstances where paying for a child’s college expenditures as part of the divorce process may fall to one or both parents.
The only way a divorce order can include college payments is if the parents already agreed to their contributions to the child’s college or university costs. Otherwise, a Michigan court will not compel one or both parents to pay a child’s education expenditures as part of the divorce settlement.
To be clear, if the parents have already agreed to this arrangement, the court will only order a parent to make college payments after a divorce.
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Goldman & Associates Law Firm is here to with information about Child Custody and Divorce in the State of Michigan.