Child custody and child support often go hand in hand when Florida parents make the difficult decisions to end their relationships in divorce. First, a child’s parents may decide where the child will live and how they will share in the decision-making processes of raising their shared offspring. Next, they may attempt to find financial balance in how and who will pay for certain needs of their child.
Florida follows the income shares model of child support, which means that the incomes and wages of both parents are factored into child support determinations. Generally, the goal of this model is to have each parent provide a proportional amount of their income to the financial care of their child, even though those parents are no longer together in a relationship. To this end, custodial parents are expected to pay child support for the benefit of their kids.
Income in Florida for the purposes of determining child support includes many sources of financial gain. Wages from employment, bonuses, benefits, royalties, dividends, rental incomes, and many other sources may be analyzed to determine if they should be factored into a parent’s income. A parent who is intentionally under-employed may have income imputed onto their calculation if they are deliberately trying to avoid paying support for their child.
Parents are expected to provide for their kids whether they live together in successful relationships or whether they separate and choose to live their lives apart. Child support is an undertaking that both of a child’s parents are expected to take on together and that both may be expected to pay. Additional questions on this post and legal topic should be directed to family law attorneys.
