Ok, totally I have another questions... My stepson's mother filed for support and my husband received an income and expenses statement that he need to fill out. Do we want to fill out and "claim" as many expenses as we can or would it hurt us to do that? Like it asks us how much we spend on clothing, food, hairdresser, etc... a year. Would his support payments be calculated to more the more we say we spend on those things??

Hey,

Did you check out that link I put in my last post? It was part of a much bigger site that you may wanna go to (you can also find it by googling "PA Child Support Guidelines").

Here's a link to the worksheet that decides the CS amount, however. Your expenses aren't anywhere in the formula (deductions are very specific things, such as taxes, union dues, etc), so by the forumla they don't factor into the CS amount at all.

In Massachusetts it's the same way, in that our expenses aren't accounted for in the CS worksheet, but they still asked us to fill them out in a form. The only thing that the court seemed to do with that expense form, however, was point out to my ex (when she started crying at the amount she was ordered to pay) that she paid more each month to drive her car. I've heard that the expense forms become more important when the ncp claims that they can't abide by the worksheet due to financial hardship. I'm sure rbb would know more about how the expense forms fit in, when the expenses themselves aren't a part of the CS equation.

Bobby

Bobby hit the nail on the head. It's true that those expenses are not part of the equation. But, they are used to see how parents are spending their money and whether they are lying. If your monthly expenses exceeds your monthly net, you are misrepresenting the facts and you lose credibility.

Just do what you should do....tell the truth about what your expenses are. Do this not because it won't hurt you because those expenses do not count, but do it because that is what the court requires of you.

Support is based on the parties' gross monthly income, visitation percentages, and other smaller items like monthly premiums for health insurance, union dues, mandatory retirement, real estate interest and taxes, etc... The biggies are income and visitaiton. The support calculator will estimate your net for you, based on your gross.

Ronn (ChildSupportEnforcers.com)