Joint Custody and Child Support
Child support and child custody are two different things but they often go hand-in-hand with one another. Most people may not associate joint custody and child support with one another. The truth is that in many cases one or both co-parents are still ordered to pay child support even if they are granted joint custody of their child. When you and your co-parent are discussing a possible joint custody agreement with one another do not eliminate the possibility of child support. A lot of factors are taken into account when determining joint custody and child support.
Child Support Details
Child support is defined as a continuous, periodic payment made by either co-parent for the financial care of their child. Child support payments can be enforced in the instance of a divorce, separation, dissolution of marriage, or annulment. Child support payments can sometimes be dependent on the type of custody arrangement that has been awarded to the co-parents.
Joint Custody Details
Joint custody can be defined in several different ways. The most common form of joint custody is when both of the co-parents share physical custody of the child, meaning that they share the day-to-day responsibilities for the child, and only one co-parent has legal custody of the child. Legal custody is defined as the important decision-making responsibilities for the child. These decisions include those regarding education, health care, religion, and so on. Other, less common, forms of joint custody may allow co-parents to share joint custody of their child through both physical custody and legal custody. Family law professionals often prefer that co-parents settle their custody agreement outside of the courtroom and typically encourage the co-parents to consider a joint custody agreement. Joint custody is often preferred because it is seen as the best interest of the child to spend significant amounts of time with both co-parents.
Joint Custody and Child Support Together
When one co-parent has sole custody of their child, the non-custodial co-parent is typically ordered to pay child support to the custodial co-parent. Joint custody must be treated much differently when determining how child support will be distributed. When joint custody has been awarded to both of the co-parents, the child is considered to have two custodial parents. The most common way that child support is determined in this case is to consider which co-parent has a higher annual income. The main basis for determining the amount of support to be paid is the gross annual income for both co-parents. Other factors may also be taken into consideration such as the number of children living in the home, the age of the children living in the home, basic living expenses, education expenses, or if the child has any type of special needs.
The OurFamilyWizard website® is dedicated to providing co-parents with the tools and resources they need to easily manage their joint custody and child support agreements. For more information on how the OurFamilyWizard website® can help with managing your joint custody and child support, please visit the Child Custody and Divorced Parenting page for more information.
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