North Carolina Child Support
Child Support FAQs
There are four adjustments that can have an impact on the amount of child support owed by a parent: preexisting child support obligations and responsibility for other children, payments for health insurance premiums, work-related child care costs, and extraordinary expenses for a child’s medical bills, education, transportation and the like.
- The deduction from gross income for preexisting obligations refers to the amount an individual is bound to pay pursuant to an existing court order or separation agreement.
- The deduction for responsibility for other children refers to the money paid to support other minor children from either the current marriage or a previous one.
- The health insurance deduction takes into account the employee’s cost to insure the minor child. Work-related child care costs are deducted at a rate of only 75%, thus taking into account the 25% federal tax credit for child care. “Work-related” daycare costs include not only those costs related to the parent’s working but also to the parent’s looking for work.
- Finally, extraordinary expenses encompass a child’s out of the ordinary medical, educational, and transportation expenses, whether permanent or temporary. If the expenses are short-term, this should be noted on both the worksheet and within any court order.
Yes. Joint custody doesn’t negate a child support obligation. Even if both parents share custody on an equal basis, one parent will inevitably owe some amount in child support. Unless of course both parents earn exactly the same income and spend exactly the same amount of time with the children, which is highly unlikely.
The reason why there still is a child support obligation even when custody is shared equally, is because our child support guidelines calculate the obligation based on time spent with each parent and the income of each parent. So even if the child spends equal time with each parent, the parent with the higher income will owe child support.
Child support is available under North Carolina law during a child’s minority (until age 18). If a child is otherwise emancipated prior to age 18, child support would end at that earlier age under our current law. There are, however, also two situations in which child support can run past the age of majority.
One such situation is that of a child who has not yet, as of age 18, graduated from high school. Provided the child is enrolled in secondary school, child support will continue until age 20 or graduation from school, whichever comes first.
The second situation is a parent’s written agreement to pay support past the age of the child’s minority. If such a contract is valid and enforceable, the post-majority obligation spelled out in the contract can be imposed by the court called on to interpret the contract.
Generally, the answer is no. If an ex-spouse who is paying child support has another child with his or her new spouse, the amount of child support being paid should not be affected. Child support in North Carolina is based on the combined income of the respective parties, the number of overnights spent with each parent, expenses for any special needs of the child, and any pre-existing child support obligations.
The only recourse for a spouse who wants to lower his or her child support obligation for a child from his or her first marriage would be through a motion to the court to deviate from the child support guidelines. In order to deviate from the guidelines the spouse would have to show that the current child support obligation was unfairly burdensome or unjust in some way.
No, child support obligations are not dischargeable in bankruptcy court.
In rare circumstances grandparents have responsibilities for paying child support. Read the below article by Laura Wish Morgan on grandparents’ responsibilities for paying child support.
Stock options and IRAs can be considered income for calculating child support amounts. Read this article below by Laura Wish Morgan on stock options and IRAs for a further explanation.
In such cases, the parties either need to negotiate an amount of support satisfactory to both parties; or the parties need to ask the court to decide whether a deviation above the maximum guideline amount is justified under the circumstances.
