FAQs About Minneapolis Child Support and Family Law
Leslie L. Kimes, Minneapolis divorce, legal separation, and family law attorney, offers the following information to assist your understanding of Minnesota family law as it relates to child support.
If you have additional questions about any aspect of Minnesota family law, please contact Leslie L. Kimes, Minneapolis matrimonial attorney, for straightforward and comprehensive advice. She can use her 23 years of experience to help you through this difficult time.
Questions and Answers
What is the new child support law in Minnesota?
The new Income Shares formula will be applied in any marriage dissolution (divorce), legal separation, paternity action, or other action where child support is ordered for the first time, or changes an existing child support order. The Income Shares formula applies to all cases filed in court after January 1, 2007.
Pre-existing child support orders will not automatically change because there is a new law.
What are key terms in Minnesota law for child support?
The general legal concept of "child support" is made up of three parts:
- Basic support: Costs for a child's housing, food, clothing, transportation and education costs, and other expenses to care for the child.
- Medical support: Health insurance and other medical/dental costs.
- Child care support: Child care costs when parents go to work or school.
Joint child is a dependent legal child of both parents in the support action.
Non-joint child is a dependent legal child of one, but not both parents, in a support action. (Note: A step-parent is not considered the legal parent of his/her step child, unless the step-parent legally adopted the child.)
What important factors influence child support in a Minneapolis, Minnesota divorce?
The Minnesota Income Shares formula includes the gross income of BOTH parents in figuring the amount of child support.
The amount of court-ordered parenting time (visitation) is considered in calculating basic support. If a parent has the child between 10 percent and 45 percent of the time, the parent gets a 12 percent adjustment (reduction) in child support owed. If the parenting time is less than 10 percent, there is no adjustment to child support. Percentage of time is generally calculated by counting the overnights the child spends with the parent.
The law presumes that both parents can or should work and earn an income. The income shares formula considers potential income as a factor in determining support.
By law, if the parents do not provide specific details about their income, the Court will set child support based on other available evidence including past work experience and the current legal minimum wage—or it will set a minimum amount provided for in the law.
When is child support ordered according to Minnesota law?
If a married couple with minor children is divorced or obtains a legal separation, the court must order one or both parents to pay child support. If the parents of the child are not married, paternity must be established by court order or by the parents voluntarily executing a document called the Recognition of Parentage.
What does child support include?
Child support includes, at a minimum, basic support, which is an amount intended to feed, clothe and shelter the child. It also includes medical support and work- or education-related child care costs. Child support also may include support arrears or reimbursement of public assistance payments made on behalf of the child.
Who pays child support, and who receives it?
Obligor is the legal term for the parent who pays money to the other parent or anyone else for the child's support. Obligee is the parent or other individual or entity who receives money on behalf of a child. Usually the obligee is the parent with whom the child lives, and obligor is the other parent. But sometimes parents have joint custody, each parent has custody of one or more of the children, or the child is not in the custody of either parent.
How is the child support amount calculated?
For actions or motions filed after January 1, 2007, the basic support obligation is calculated based on the gross income of both parents. Gross income includes any form of periodic payment. Excluded from gross income are received child support payments, public assistance, and in specific circumstances, overtime pay. Gross income does not include the income of an obligee's or obligor's spouse.
A deduction from gross income is allowed when a nonjoint child resides in a parent's household, and the parent is not obligated to pay child support. The resulting amount is the parental income available for child support (PICS).
After each party's parental income available for child support (PICS) is determined, the amounts are combined. The court must compare the total to the child support guidelines in the Minnesota statute. Each parent is responsible for the percentage of the basic support obligation represented by his or her percentage share of the combined parental income available for child support (PICS). The obligor is allowed a parenting expense adjustment, based on the percentage of parenting time granted by the court.
After determining the support amount under the statutory guidelines, the court must consider several statutory criteria that allow it to depart from the guidelines amount. These criteria include the parents' earnings, income, resources, and debts, the child's, needs, the child's living standard before dissolution, and which parent receives the dependent income tax exemption. The court may reduce support payments for a low-income obligor.
When is a Financial Affidavit required?
If parents with joint children are parties to a court action involving child support, the law now requires that each parent complete a Financial Affidavit disclosing all sources of income. See the law at Minn Stat. 518A.28. Each parent must serve and file the Financial Affidavit with their initial pleadings or motion documents. A party must use the Financial Affidavit provided by the Department of Human Services, and the form can be downloaded from the DHS Website.
Call Leslie L. Kimes for help with your Minneapolis separation agreement at 612-424-9162 or use our contact us form and email us today!