Children and Parenting
Regarding youngsters, coming up with parenting plans is essential to divorce proceedings. The court wants parents to settle on a solution that is in the best interest of their children rather than take out personal grievances.
Child Custody Considerations
Child custody involves many considerations. These include the dwelling arrangements (both long and short term) and significant days in their life when they should spend time with each parent. Consider what would be best for them, given their age or development needs. Ensuring contact between parents and keeping the child’s interests at heart is crucial to formulating an effective custody arrangement.
Child Support: Calculating and Managing Payments
Child support is a payment arranged outside court between the two parents through binding or limited child support agreements. The Services Australia helps assess and manage payments for any children involved.
Child support is calculated with a basic 8-step formula:
- Child support income: Each parent’s adjusted taxable income minus an amount to support any dependant children not part of the child support assessment.
- Combined income: Each parent’s child support income is added together.
- Income percentages: Each parent’s income is divided by the combined income to find their income percentage.
- Percentage of care: Each parent’s percentage of care is determined.
- Cost percentage: Each parent’s cost percentage is worked out through the Care and Cost Table.
- Child support percentage: Each parent’s cost percentage is subtracted from the income percentage to find each parent’s child support percentage. If the result is negative, that parent will receive a child support payment from the other parent.
- Cost of children: The cost of each child is determined relative to the parents’ combined income. This is done with the Costs of Children table.
- Final child support amount: The positive child support percentage found in Step 6 is multiplied by the costs of the child. This provides the child support amount payable.
Managing Child Support Payments
Once you have completed a child support assessment, you must figure out how you want to handle payments.
Private collect. The parents will determine how to organise payments without involving Services Australia.
Child Support collect. Services Australia will set out how payments will be made. They will also collect the payment from the payer and transfer it to the receiving parent.
