Tweet

“How do I make sure that my child support obligation is fair?  I don’t want to pay too much child support to my ex because I know he/she will just use the money on him/her-self.  How do I avoid this?”

 I hear this question or those similar to it all the time.  And it’s understandable.  You feel that because your ex-spouse or ex-boyfriend/girlfriend is selfish, terrible at managing money, a “partier”, etc., you worry that your children will never actually receive the benefit of any of the child support you pay to your ex.  This can be especially frustrating when you feel that a large chunk of your hard-earned income goes towards these child support payments, (a.k.a. “Ex-wife’s shopping and beauty salon fund”–no offense ladies, but you know that this is a common–if not always fair–complaint of ex-husbands, who pay the lion’s share of child support in most divorce cases).  While there is no easy answer to how you can avoid this scenario, you can benefit from learning how child support is awarded and calculated.

Child Support Guidelines

First, it is important to understand that child support is calculated pursuant to fairly rigid statutory guidelines.  It’s based on a basic formula consisting of the number of children, each parent’s gross monthly income, and (if you are sharing joint physical custody) number of overnights each parent has the children in his/her custody.  Click on the link below to see how this formula works:

http://www.utcourts.gov/childsupport/calculator

Courts will automatically deem the dollar amount generated by this formula presumptively “fair, reasonable and required” and will set this amount as your child support obligation.  The “obligor” parent will then be required to pay this amount to the “obligee” parent, whether this is paid directly or wages are garnished by the Office of Recovery Services (“ORS”).

Notwithstanding, it is possible for a court to enter an amount of child support that differs from the amount generated by the child support calculator.  Such an order is called a “deviated child support order.”

In order for a court to enter a deviated child support order, the court must find and conclude that 1) the presumption of child support award amount resulting from use of statutory guidelines is rebutted in your case; and 2) that an award amount resulting from use of the guidelines would be unjust, inappropriate, or not in the best interest of the parties’ children (Utah Code § 78B-12-210(3) and (4)).

What does this mean?  It means that because virtually no court will ever conclude that an amount of child support which is less than the amount calculated pursuant to the statutory guidelines is in the best interest of the children, your best hope is to have the opposing party agree to receive less child support.  Even if the other party will agree to a lesser amount, remember that the court still needs to approve such an agreement.  Paying a lower amount of child support just because you don’t want to pay a higher amount and the other party will let you get away with it still may not pass muster with the court.  You should incorporate provisions into your settlement agreement that explain how you justify paying a lesser amount of child support and why paying a lesser amount is not deleterious to the children’s best interest.  If and as you fail to come up with any convincing arguments as to how your children receiving less support is somehow in their best interest, you can better understand why deviating from the child support guidelines is rarely done.

Bringing Some Accountability to Child Support

So if you can’t easily reduce the statutory guideline-dictated amount of child support you pay, how do you ensure that it is actually used for the benefit of your children, i.e. how do you avoid paying directly to your ex?

Again, the best answer here is that you have to get the opposing party to agree to some other arrangement.  Generally if you have these concerns about this person in the first place, they aren’t going to be the type of person who will agree to this.  You can propose he/she provide some kind of accounting every month as to how he/she is using the child support money (the Utah Code even has an express provision for this: Section 78B-12-218 (Accountability of support provided to benefit child — Accounting) provides that the court or administrative agency which issues the initial or modified order for child support may, upon the petition of the obligor, order the obligee to furnish  to the obligor an accounting or receipts evidencing how the obligee spends the amounts provided for the child’s benefit) or that instead of paying the money directly to this person, you use the money to buy things the children need and provide an accounting of your purchases.  At first glance, these may seem like great alternatives.  However, your ex could always argue that he/she uses some/all of your child support payments for rent or utilities so that your children have a place to stay with running water/electricity, etc. (or some other argument about basic needs) and that withholding this money from him/her will hinder her ability to do this.

Also keep in mind that deviating from the child support guidelines requires extra effort and paperwork (keeping track of what is purchased for the children and when, providing documentation every month, etc.).  Even if you and the opposing party can agree to an arrangement of this kind, courts may be hesitant to approve something that would require so much extra effort, especially if there is potential for the parties to constantly disagree on how the money was or should have been used.

Please keep the foregoing policies and rules in mind the next time you want to argue with your lawyer or the court about why you shouldn’t have to pay $X in child support or how you can avoid sending the money straight into the hands of your ex without any accountability for how the funds are spent at his/her end.  While it isn’t impossible, it is difficult to deviate from the child support guidelines, especially if the parties cannot reach an agreement regarding if and how such a deviation will work.

 

 

Tweet