In 1987, the Florida Legislature established Florida Child Support Guidelines to bring some simplicity and consistency to child support across the state. The public policy of the State of Florida in the creation of the child support guidelines is established by the following principles confirmed by the Florida Legislature in 2010:
1. Each parent has a fundamental obligation to support his or her minor or legally dependent child.
2. The guidelines schedule is based on the parent’s combined net income estimated to have been allocated to the child as if the parents and children were living in an intact household.
3. The guidelines encourage fair and efficient settlement of support issues between parents and minimizes the need for litigation.
These guidelines are primarily formulaic, and are based on the results of economic studies using specific information. Gone are the days of having to calculate the actual expenses spent by a family on their children, which would create an undue hardship on most parents that have to deal with the Courts to get child support.
The information plugged into the formulas includes: the gross income of the parties, which may include alimony, minus specifically listed deductions such as tax and health insurance premiums for the parents; the number of children involved; the number of overnights each parent has the children pursuant to the parenting plan; certain child related expenses such as child care for the children that is necessary for the parents to work, and health insurance premiums for the children. The formula inputs are specifically listed in the Florida Child Support statute.
Once the information is plugged into the formula, a chart will set forth the presumptive amount of the overhead for the children, called the basic monthly obligation. Then the guidelines will allocate the basic monthly obligation among the parents, which will usually result in one parent paying support to the other.
The formula provides a “presumptive” support amount. Each parent may ask that the support be adjusted, based upon specific statutory factors, but any such deviations are an exception to the rule and are not routinely done. Typically, the formula is used without much dispute and the amount of child support is easily determined. However, as with anything in family law, there are always unique circumstances that may present themselves which would require a more thorough analysis of the facts. For those cases, families should obtain legal counsel to insure that child support is accurately determined to better assist one or both parties in properly caring for their children.