Family Law: How Child Support is Calculated

When it comes to child support, we often advise that clients seek assessment and management of payments through the Child Support Agency. Why? Because this service was established by the Government to solely handle child support payments. Consequently, it often provides parties with the simplest, cheapest and most hassle-free system to make child support payments. However, a question we are often asked it ‘How are these payments calculated?’

 In short, through a very complicated formula that is more suited to statisticians than lawyers! However, we can explain the general principles which determine child support payments and the factors which will be considered.

 Generally, the formula used to calculate child support takes into account the cost of caring for children, the percentage of care provided by each parent and the income of each parent. Through this formula, the Child Support Agency determines how much care is provided by each parent and how much financial support is required to cover the disparity between the care provided by each parent.

 The factors which will be considered include:

• Each parent’s income: this refers to your adjusted taxable income minus a small self-support amount and any amount required for the support of other dependents.
• The percentage of care provided by each parent to the child
• The cost of that care, giving consideration to a table of costs
• The cost of the children, as per a table developed of statistics provided by the ABS.

If you would like to determine a ballpark figure for your child support obligations, you may access the online calculator on the Department of Human Services Website. If you have further questions or believe a Binding Child Support Agreement may better suit your circumstances, please do not hesitate to contact us on 9688 6023 or email us at info@franklegal.com.au.

This article is provided to the reader for general information. It is not legal advice. It was written by Andrea Spencer & Emily Graham and edited by James Frank.

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Family law, Separation, Financial considerations, financial impact, child support, children