The Court will calculate child support in
your case based upon a set of guidelines issued by the Arizona Supreme Court.
Generally, the calculation of child support will depend on the total gross
income of the parents, child care costs, the cost of your child's medical/dental
insurance, your child's age, how much time the child spends with each parent,
and possibly other extraordinary expenses incurred to care for or educate your
child.
Click here to see the Arizona
Child Support Calculator.
If your child requires day care, the court
usually will include the amount of the day care costs in its calculations.
If day care costs are included in the calculations, then the parents share the
cost in proportion to their gross incomes, and the parent who receives child
support will be the parent who pays the day care provider.
The cost of your child's medical insurance premium is treated similarly to
day care costs - i.e., the amount of the medical insurance premium is factored
into the child support calculations, and each parent will pay a share of that
cost in proportion to their incomes. The parent who carries the policy
(whether through their employment or otherwise) will pay the medical insurance
provider, regardless of whether they receive or pay child support. If the
parent who pays child support is also the parent who carries the medical
insurance coverage, they receive a credit against the amount of child support
they pay for their proportionate share of the cost of the premium.
For medical bills not covered by insurance, each parent pays a share of the
bill in proportion to their incomes. The uncovered medical bills are not
factored into the child support calculations, however, and it is up to the
parent who incurs the bill to seek payment from the other parent. Usually
the court directs the parent who incurs the bill to send a copy to the other
parent, and the other parent is expected to pay their share directly to the
parent who sent the bill.
Yes. The more time a parent spends with their children, the less they
pay. Usually the court decreases the amount of child support to be paid
depending on how may days a month the parent sees the children on average.
Yes. Arizona law considers the issues of visitation and child support
to be separate and distinct, so the custodial parent must continue to allow the
non-custodial parent to visit with the child despite the non-custodial parent's
failure to pay child support. The reasoning is this: Child support orders
are based upon the financial needs of the child and the ability of the child's
parents to meet those needs. Visitation orders are intended to safeguard
the best interests of a child by ensuring that the child has a meaningful
relationship with each parent. Because of this distinction, one parent's
failure to pay support will not excuse the other parent's failure to allow
visitation.
The court will normally enter an Order of Assignment that directs your
employer to withhold a certain amount of money each month from your paycheck to
cover the child support obligation. To determine how much will be
withheld, multiply the monthly child support by twelve (to get the yearly
total), then divide that yearly total by the number of pay periods you have in a
year. For parents who are paid every other week, divide the yearly total
by twenty six. For parents who are paid twice a month, divide the yearly
total by twenty four. The court will usually withhold an additional fee
for processing the wage assignment.
If the court does not enter an Order of Assignment, or if the Order of
Assignment does not go into effect at the time you are ordered to pay child
support, you should send your check directly to the Support Payment
Clearinghouse. The Clearinghouse processes all child support payments and
keeps records of payments. Sending your child support payment to the
Clearinghouse will help avoid any confusion if a dispute arises over whether a
parent has paid all of the child support ordered by the court.
In some cases, the parents agree or the court orders that one parent will pay child support directly to
the other. This is not the best approach for the parent who is ordered to
pay, since it puts the burden on the paying parent to keep records of the
payments. Furthermore, if the records are not accepted by the court, the
paying parent may not receive credit for paying child support (i.e., the court
may consider it a gift to the other parent).
If your employer is not withholding child support from your pay and you have
not been ordered to pay the other parent directly, you should
make your check payable to the Support Payment Clearinghouse. You are
required to send an additional handling fee of $2.25 per month ($27.00 per
year) with your payment.
Support Payment Clearinghouse
P.O. Box 52107
Phoenix, AZ 85072-2107
If the child support payments were made through the
Clearinghouse, you can get a record of them through the Clerk of the Court in
the Superior Court where you case was filed. There is a fee for the
official payment history records. Unofficial child support payment
histories from the Maricopa County Clerk of the Court's office are available online for free
here.
How much will my child support be? 