The majority of divorces in Arizona involve (minor) children. Therefore, the majority of divorces in Arizona involve the issue of child support. Fortunately, determining child support and how much you’ll get (or pay) is relatively straightforward. I say relatively because it can become a complicated issue, but for the most part, and certainly compared to certain property issues or spousal maintenance for that matter, child support is “easy.”  The reason child support can be easy is because it is based on a formula set forth in the Arizona Child Support Guidelines.

Support Guidelines

The Arizona Child Support Guidelines can be found here. The primary factors that go into the equation are: (1) income of the parents; (2) whether or not spousal maintenance is paid/received; (3) other minor children that are not common to the two parties; (4) health insurance premium; and (5) the parenting schedule. These are not the only factors that can have an impact on the child support calculation, but they are the most common, and Nos. 1, 4, and 5 are pretty much present in every case.  

If you haven’t found it already, there is a child support calculator you can use online to see what your child support is going to be.  You can find the child support calculator here on the Arizona Supreme Court’s website. You can play around with it, plug in different numbers, and see how the various numbers can affect child support.  

Here are some things to consider as you try to determine your child support award/obligation.  

The Court will Use the Calculator

Child support will almost always be ordered by the Court per the calculator.  This isn’t to say that the Court will necessarily agree with your inputs to the calculation (e.g. income amount, your proposed parenting schedule, etc.).  However, the Court will use the same calculator and adopt the calculated figure per the Guidelines. The only time the Court will deviate from the Guideline amount is when doing so is in the best interest of the children.  This is relatively rare. Even when both parents agree to a deviation, the Court is still required to determine the Guideline amount, find that both parents know what the Guideline amount would be, and then still find that the deviation is in the children’s best interest.  

Nuances that could Save or Cost You

Even though the factors that go into child support can seem straightforward, there can be complicating circumstances.  For instance, let’s say you work overtime a lot and your income is higher than if you just worked regular full time. Do you have to include your overtime pay when calculating child support?  Under the Guidelines, the initial answer is no, BUT it also depends on your industry and work history. The Court CAN include your overtime income when calculating child support depending on the circumstances.  On the other side of the spectrum, let’s assume you don’t even have a job. Can you put $0 for your income. Under the Guidelines, the Court will typically impute at least minimum wage income working full time. Of course there are exceptions to this as well.  As you can see, even though the child support calculator looks straightforward, there can be disagreements and legal issues as to how child support should be calculated based on the numbers that are used in the formula.

Health insurance can also be tricky because there is often a cost for you, a cost for a spouse, and a cost for your children.  If your total health insurance premium is $500/month, can you include that amount on the calculator? Most likely no. The Guidelines explain that the amount that goes into the calculation is only the premium cost for the minor children that are part of the child support order.  The Guidelines also explain how to determine the amount if there are people covered under your health insurance in addition to the minor children.

The Impact of Parenting Time

Finally, I’ll touch on the parenting schedule.  I’ve heard more than once a person’s astonishment that he/she has to pay child support when the parties will have equal parenting time.  Even when people share equal parenting time, it is very likely that one party will still have to pay child support to the other. In that type of scenario the key factors will be the parties’ incomes, and who is paying for the children’s health insurance.  In the case where the parties don’t share equal parenting time, the non-primary parent will get credit for his/her parenting days. Calculating the number of parenting time days is also structured under the Guidelines. Because the amount of child support that has to be paid will go up and down depending on the number of parenting days credited, you can imagine that there are fights over calculating just how many days a parent is getting under the parenting schedule.  

Hopefully you’ve learned where you can go to calculate child support, where you can review the Guidelines, and understand that there can be some nuance when it comes to correctly calculating child support.  If all of this seems daunting and/or you would like to learn more about child support, then sign up for our online Child Support Course, which covers all of these issues in more depth and provides specific citations to the Guidelines.  Knowledge is power and understanding the law and the Guidelines can help you receive (or keep) more money when it comes to child support. .