Child custody laws have always been left up to the individual states.
Each state has been responsible to come up with custody regulations, forms, and procedures for determining custody issues.
As part of this, each state has made rules and laws about child support.
These laws determine who pays and receives and how the amount is calculated.
There are many different factors that the states use to determine the amount of child support.
All of the states base the amount on income--but how they define income is different.
Some states use net monthly income and other states use gross income.
Some states include investments and bonds with the income and some don't.
Some states factor in living expenses of both parents and other states don't even consider that.
One common factor that is used in almost every state is the time-share percentage that each parent has with the children.
Some states use an exact time-share percentage and other states use an overnight percentage.
There are even a few states who use a modified overnight percentage.
Child support calculations have always been complicated and time consuming.
A person had to go through all of the steps of the laws to figure out how much they owed or how much they received.
It was difficult to catch errors and fix the payments if they had been calculated wrong.
Now states use child support software to calculate the correct amount.
This is a better way because it cuts down the number of errors significantly.
The software makes it very easy and fast to do the calculations.
It is also beneficial because anyone can figure out their child support payment even if they aren't a legal expert.
Each state has its own child support software.
It is easily accessible online.
This software should help you know how much you will pay or how much you will receive.