Parents' Legal Responsibilities - Child Support |
| Date Added: July 06, 2010 02:46:49 AM |
| Author: elkla89 |
| Category: Shopping: Children |
| Both the mother and the father are obliged by law to support their children financially in accordance with their ability to do so. As a rule, jurisdictions have set child support guidelines, which provide a formula for calculating child maintenance grounded upon a proportion of gross income earned by each parent. Such issues are rarely a concern for the court during a committed relationship. But when parents divorce or live separately from their children, the court normally obliges a non-custodial parent to pay child support to a custodial parent. Like the issue of custody, this can be settled out of court or by arguing over it in front of a judge. Child maintenance payments, like alimony, may be included into the divorce judgment or may be determined in a marital separation agreement. You can avoid making child maintenance a contested issue, by both the mother and the father deciding on the appropriate sum of child support and making this agreement part of an MSA. If a non-custodial parent has other lawful obligations, they will also be taken into account in determining child support. For example, if a parent is paying child maintenance from a previous relationship, it will be taken into consideration. Necessities of life, such as food and rent will also be taken into account by the court. Nevertheless, child maintenance payments will not be decreased to make it easier for the parent to make discretionary payments. For example, a parent cannot donate money or buy a high-priced motor vehicle at the expense of financially supporting his or her own children. To assist the court in deciding on the appropriate sum of child support, both parties are to prepare a financial declaration that is signed under penalty of perjury. Each parent will be required to fully disclose their income, property holdings, such as current accounts, investments and real estate and their financial obligations. These documents will be heavily relied on by the court in making the order and, hence, it is in the best interests of the children that the declarations be completed completely and honestly. Those who deliberately avoid paying child maintenance can be punished. If the custodial parent sues the nonpaying parent, he or she may be taken to court. |
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