Any person or agency having custody of a child may file for support of a child. A minor child that has a guardian may have their guardian institute a child support claim on the child’s behalf. There is a presumption that the biological mother and father will be primarily responsible for the support of the minor child. Additionally, parents of a minor that has their own child while under the age of 18 are legally responsible for BOTH their child and their grandchild’s child support until their child reaches maturity.
When one parent is voluntarily underemployed or depressing their income in bad faith, the court can impute (or create an imaginary amount) of income to use to set child support. The North Carolina General Legislature has established guidelines and worksheets so that everyone can determine their child support obligation with some basic information.
The primary information you need is as follows:
- The gross income from all sources for both parents.
- The total amount of work related (or school related) daycare expenses for the minor children.
- The cost of the medical insurance premium for each child.
- Any extraordinary expenses.
- The total amount of overnights the minor child spends with each parent.
Once you have this information you can create a worksheet. Worksheets are supposed to meet the reasonable needs of the minor child(ren) based on the children’s standard of living.
It is imperative that parents agree on who will claim the minor child for tax purposes, in what ratio or amount each parent will contribute to medical expenses, and any other child related expenses which the parties may incur. Note that a parent does not have an obligation to pay for college expenses unless they agree in writing to assume such an obligation, which we rarely recommend.
Once child support is established and being paid by an order, it should also be paid to the payee and withdrawn from the payor’s paychecks through wage withholding. Direct deposit can also be used by the parties if they do not want the government involved in their child support obligations.