Does Parenting Time Affect Child Support?

What If I Have the Children Half the Time. Do I Get a Break on Child Support?

Under Massachusetts child support guidelines, there’s an assumption that the parent who receives child support has two-thirds of the parenting responsibility. However, if the person who pays child support is responsible for between a third and a half of the parenting time, the court is going to do a calculation twice. They’ll run through the guidelines and the worksheet once like it’s normally done, but then they’ll do it a second time by finding an average of the normal calculation for each of you running it and finding the average. That’s how they handle it in that case.

Now, what if each parent has approximately half of the parenting time?

In that case, support is determined by calculating the guidelines for each of you and finding the middle ground. However, judges can spot a parent who wants more time just to lower his or her child support. It won’t work. Any recipient who has more than two-thirds of the parenting time can get an upward deviation of support. Why? Because they’re with the children more.

Child support is handled differently in every court. Although the law is the same everywhere throughout Massachusetts, you can strengthen your chances of getting a successful outcome in your case if your family law attorney is familiar with the court and judges. That’s why you need a law firm that assigns attorneys to the different regions of the courts charged with understanding how the judges each handle their cases. At Miller Law Group, P.C., our attorneys know how judges throughout Massachusetts handle their cases and the judges know our attorneys. Call us for a free, no-obligation consultation about child support in your case at (508) 502-7002!