A Guide to Support Guidelines, Part 1: Child Support

There are two kinds of support available in a dissolution case, child support and spousal support, and you may have heard someone refer to the “guidelines” for determining the amount of support.

The child support guidelines are located in the California Family Code. The purposes of the guidelines are: that the parents’ first and principal obligation is to support minor children according to their circumstances; that both parents are mutually responsible; and that the interests of the child are the priority.

The guidelines provide a complicated mathematical formula that determines the baseline for child support, based on the financials of each parent, the number of children, and the amount of time that parent has physical custody of the child. Lawyers and judges typically use a computer program called Dissomaster, where you plug in each of these numbers and the program calculates the amount of support.

There is a statutory presumption that the amount calculated using the guidelines is the correct amount of child support. However, a judge can adjust the amount when they find the presumption has been rebutted by circumstances. One such circumstance is when the parties stipulate – or agree – to an alternate amount.

In mediation, all of the family law mediators have the computer program, DissoMaster, that courts use to calculate the amount. However, there is no requirement that the parties agree to that amount; if the parties come to an alternate agreement, they can put it in their agreement and the court will accept it. The only rule is that child support cannot be permanently waived, because it is actually a right of the child and not the parent. The amount can be set at $0, with the knowledge that could be adjusted in the future.

Parents are typically responsible for child support until the child reaches the age of majority, which in California is when the child is 18 and out of high school, or when the child is 19.
Child support is not tax deductible for the payer (this differs from spousal support), and there is no tax obligation for the spouse receiving child support.