Child Support in Florida - What is the Fight About? Part 2

In part one, I briefly outlined the framework of Section 61.30, of the Florida Statutes, pertaining to how child support is calculated. Let's look at two instances when the parents might disagree as to the amount of child support payable by either of them.

So why do people fight about the amount of child support if there is formula provided?

It boils down to time and money. Specifically, what is considered income by a party, and how much time a parent shares with the child. When it comes to what is income, parents may disagree as to what should or should not be included. For example, if you're a W-2 wage earner, you might think that your income can be easily determined from your W-2 form. But what if you get bonuses? Should that income be included? Inclusion (or exclusion) of bonuses as income is what parties could fight about in this (very narrow) example.

For parents who own a business, the potential for disagreement as to what is income is usually greater. Sometimes a business may pay for certain personal expenses of a party, and this could be argued to be income to the parent for whom the business pays such expenses.

When it comes to time-sharing, the basic child support calculation under the Guidelines has a built-in assumption: it assumes that the party paying child support is sharing less than forty percent of overnights with the child. All else being equal, the child support amount due from a parent will be different if the parent spends at least forty percent (40%) of overnights with a child. Additional calculations are needed to arrive at the child support obligation of parents who share time with their children for forty percent or more of the overnights.

Now that Florida has eliminated the terms custody and visitation, the child support guidelines might be next on their list for revision. It makes sense to find a better way to deal with the "time is money" factor currently reflected in the guidelines. In doing so, the parties would have one less thing to keep them from concentrating on the best interest of their children when it comes to working on a time-sharing plan for them.

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