50/50 Custody
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Does 50/50 custody void child support all together? Or does the higher income winner still have to pay? Would it be a lesser amount?
BM is trying to bulldoze DH into an even more insane custody schedule giving us less time and getting her more money and I'm so sick of it. She doesn't work or drive... she does nothing and wants IT ALL and even expects it all.
When DH doesn't agree to her new parenting plan she goes for the jugular and blackmails DH saying that shes going to move away then and show everybody the nasty vile texts he has ever sent her.
I'm so sick of it.
Depends on the state. In my
Depends on the state. In my state, both parental incomes are used to calculate the general expectation for support for both parents and then the actual CS payment is determined based on custody. DH has a relatively low payment, even though he is the NCP because BM makes so much more money. If we had 50/50, BM would have to pay us to make up for the difference between her and DH's income.
Depends on the state. My DH
Depends on the state. My DH has main custody but opted out of child support which is unheard of in most states. I know if it’s 50/50 here, most judges rule that no support be paid and each responsible for their own half of everything.
My DH and BM had 50/50 and he
My DH and BM had 50/50 and he was still paying CS. Now DH has 55% placement and still has to pay CS, though the amount dropped significantly.
If your state has a
If your state has a calculator online you should be able to plug in what you know (especially if there's a current order) and get an idea of where things will end up.
Our state is similar to what you noted.
Essentially there's a total dollar amount available to support the child(ren) and each parent will be responsible based on that.
For example, in a 50/50 situation my SO will still pay support because he carries a larger portion of that total income.
In fact, if he were CP at 55/45 he would still pay. Minimal, but he would still be required to pay.
Generally CS is a factor of
Generally CS is a factor of total bio-parent income and parenting time. The problem arises when a Judge deviates from the state CS formulas... sadly this is not a rare thing.
As far as 50/50 .... it is rare that there is not CS involved since the generally accepted goal of a custody/CS order is to normalize a child's standard of living across the split parents' households.
So, even with a 50/50 custody order CS can and is often ordered by the Judge.
Often this comes down to physical Vs legal custody. Often legal custody is joint while a custodial parent is named based on which parent has the most parenting time with the child. Most often this goes in favor of the mom and the dad is on the hook for CS and less physical time with the kid(s).
In our case my wife was the CP with full physical and legal custody and though over the course of our 16+ year custody/visitation/support order she out-earned the bio-dad by ~3X he was on the hook for CS for the entire time. Bio-dad's visitation time was 7wks per year. (5wks summer, 1wk winter, 1wk spring).
The way the income shares CS model tends to work (most states use some variant of the Income Shares Model)meant that even though my DW out earned the Bio-dad his CS went up any time either he or we requested a CS review by the court. As her income went up... his CS obligation went up even if his income did not increase.
Dig into your state's online CS calculator and run some scenarios to get an idea of the likely outcome in your situation.
Good luck.