Income for child support

Available income

The court can consider a parent’s income based on the serial-family parent guidelines. Income available for support is the parent's income minus support for earlier obligations (duty to support).

If a parent pays or receives support for an earlier obligation, the court may reduce the parent's income under the full Percentage Standard when calculating income for a later support obligation. This is true whether or not the earlier obligation is for an intact family, a split-placement case, a shared-placement case, or a combined split-placement and shared-placement case. The parent supports the child whether or not the child live with this parent or the other parent, or whether the parent receives or pays support for the child.

For example:
A parent has 2 older children in a split-placement case. One child lives with this parent, and one child lives with the other parent. The court may reduce this parent's income by 25% to determine the income available for a later obligation (duty to support). This parent supports both (2) of his or her children.

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