Being Creative with Child Support

Using the Collaborative Law process, we feel impelled to be creative with solutions, even where there are standard guidelines in the Texas Family Code for such things as how to set child support. In most litigation cases, the child support amount is quickly set by following the standard formula.  The Code deals with the amounts of income and the number of children before the Court, as well as considering if there are other children that need to be supported.

There's nothing wrong with the guidelines, but they seem mechanical and may not fit some situations.  When we're in the Collaborative process,  we usually consider other approaches, although we sometimes go back to the guidelines.

For those looking to be a little more original and creative, here are some quick ideas to think about:

1.  Correlate the support to the amount of time each parent has the child.  One way to do it is to decide that the support paid by a parent is reduced in relation to the amount of time that parent has the child. That makes some sense because obviously the expenses for the child grow for a parent as the parent has more time with the child.

2.  Set up a fund to pay certain expenses.  If the parents expect the child to participate in expensive activities, such as select sports or high-level dance or music lessons, they may be able to set aside existing money in a savings account.  They can move funds into a designated account that would pay all or most of the expenses for certain activities.  That would eliminate the need to communicate and negotiate for payment of the extra expenses.

3.  A parent could agree to pay all or a part of expenses for the child within a specified range.  For example, a parent could pay up to $2,500.00 per year for all extracurricular expenses. Where one parent has more resources than the other, that's a good way to try to keep the child in a standard of living similar to how they were living before divorce.

4.  A parent could agree to pay all or part of all extracurricular activities, regardless of the amount.  For example, a parent could pay for all baseball or dance or music or cheerleading expenses.

5.  For special needs, the bills could be allocated between the parties.  If it's known in advance, the bills can be assigned.  Another way is for each parent to contribute specified amounts to a fund to pay the for special needs.

6.  The parties could read about how other states do their child support and may choose someone else's scheme or choose parts of other states' plans.  Texas doesn't have a monopoly on good ideas and there are some worthwhile plans around the country.

7.  The child support could be adjusted to consider the community and separate property and debts of the parties.  If someone has more assets, maybe they can afford to pay more support.

These are just a few ideas. There are lots of ways to meet the child's needs and minimize conflicts between the parents. Please share any good ideas you have for customizing child support in the Collaborative Law process.

Customizing Child Support

The Traditional Approach

Most, if not all, states now rely on formulas to calculate child support in a uniform manner for the child support cases filed within their state. In Texas, for example, our primary formula is 20% of net income resources for 1 child, 25% for 2 children, 30% for 3 children, etc. Some other states base their calculations on gross income. They may also use different percentages. Texas also has adjustments (different percentages) when there are children in different households and there are child support obligations in each household. There may also be variations from state to state about what deductions are permitted before the child support is calculated and about what resources are to be considered possible funds for child support.

Traditionally, one parent pays child support to the other parent each month, regardless of how much time the child spends with each parent.

In Texas Collaborative Law cases, we often explain how child support is calculated under Texas rules, and we can also look at other states' statutes, as well. BUT, we don't want the parties to feel like they need to follow the statutory formula of Texas or any other state. On the other hand, the parents should feel free to examine and consider the child support arrangements of any state.

New Ideas

To open up the discussion further, here are three other suggestions of approaches that parties might take in Collaborative cases, especially in cases where the parents end up with close to equal time with the child, a scenario that is becoming more and more common.

1. Split the difference. The parties each calculate how much child support he and she would pay under the Texas Family Code. Whichever parent has the greater income would pay to the other parent the difference between the two amounts of child support.

2. Pay half of the expenses. Some parties get along well enough that they can each pay half of specified expenses. Sometimes the list of expenses includes items the court would not, or could not, order, such as religious expenses or college expenses. Generally, parents can agree to share any expenses that they want to.

3. Pay a proportionate share. If there is a significant difference in income between the parents, they could agree for each to pay a proportionate share of specified expenses. For example if wife made $6,000.00 per month and husband made $3,000.00 per month, wife might pay 2/3 of the expenses and husband could pay 1/3 to match their comparative incomes.

There are obviously many other possible formulations for child support. The most important point here is that the parties should not feel bound or limited by traditional or statutory schemes for calculating child support. Spending time brainstorming at a joint meeting can lead to creative, flexible and satisfying child support arrangements.

The lesson to be learned: don't limit your options!