The biggest factors affecting child support are income of the payor and custody of the child.
Child support is calculated by looking at the total gross income of the payor parent. The support recipient parent is the one who has custody of the child. Gross income means that we use that parents before tax income rather than their after tax income.
After the payor’s income is determined then we use a table called the Federal Child Support Guidelines to determine the amount of support that should be paid based on income and the number of children who still require support.
If custody is shared then the amount of support paid can be more difficult to calculate. However, an estimate can be made by looking at the amount that each parent would pay according to the Guidelines and then subtracting the smaller amount from the larger amount.
