Understanding the intricacies of child support can be daunting for many parents navigating family law matters. Calculating child support involves several factors, and each case can present unique challenges.

Child support services are designed to help ensure fair support arrangements, but knowing how child support is calculated and what constitutes legal advice can make a significant difference in managing your obligations efficiently.

For a rough estimate on how much child support is:

• Low-income scenarios: Child support could be around $50 to $500 per month per child.
• Middle-income scenarios: It might range from $500 to $1,500 per month per child.
• High-income scenarios: It could exceed $1,500 per month per child, potentially reaching several thousand dollars.

Genesis Family Law & Divorce Lawyers provides guidance for paying and receiving parents, ensuring that every aspect of child support is handled with clarity and fairness.

Understanding Child Support in Arizona

Arizona uses a specific formula to calculate child support based on the Income Shares Model. This model considers parents' incomes and other factors to determine a fair amount of support.

The Arizona Child Support Calculator is a tool designed to help only an estimate of this amount by inputting relevant financial information, including each parent's gross income, health insurance costs, and other expenses, following the Arizona child support guidelines.

How Child Support Is Calculated

Child support calculations in Arizona consider several factors, including parents' incomes, the number of children, and any additional costs related to the child's well-being, such as healthcare, education, and childcare. The formula aims to provide a fair distribution of financial responsibility for adopted children, reflecting the proportion of each parent's income.

Key Factors Affecting Child Support

Many factors can influence the amount of child support ordered. These include:

• Income of both parents: The total income of both parents, including wages, bonuses, and other sources of income, is considered.
• Number of children: The support amount is adjusted based on the number of children requiring support.
• Healthcare and childcare costs: Health insurance, medical expenses, and childcare costs are factored into the calculations.
• Other financial obligations: Other obligations, such as existing support orders for other children, can also affect the amount of support.

Arizona's Child Support Income Shares Model

Arizona's Income Shares Model ensures that children receive the same proportion of their parent's income as they would have if the family were intact. The child support calculation is done by considering the combined income of both parents and then determining each parent's share of the total support obligation.

The aim is to distribute the financial responsibility for the child equally between both parents.

Establishing Legal Parenthood

Legal parentage must be confirmed before paying child support. In Arizona, this involves recognizing the child's biological or legal parents.

Establishing legal parentage can be straightforward if the parents are married, but it may require additional steps if the parents are unmarried or if paternity needs to be legally confirmed.

Impact on Child Support Obligations

Once legal parentage is established, the court can issue a child support order. The amount of child support awarded is based on the parent's financial situation and the child's needs. Legal parentage ensures that the responsible parent is obligated to provide financial support.

Handling Past Due Child Support

If you fail to get child support paid, it can lead to serious consequences. These may include wage garnishment, monthly income due, tax refund interception, and even legal action to enforce payment. Non-payment can affect the parent's credit score and may result in additional legal penalties.

Strategies for Managing Arrears

There are strategies to manage arrears if you struggle with past-due child support. Contacting the court or a family law attorney to discuss your situation is a crucial first step. Sometimes, you can negotiate a payment plan or seek modifications to the support order based on changed financial circumstances.

Payment of Child Support

In Arizona, child support payments are typically managed through the Arizona Child Support Clearinghouse. This centralized system ensures that payments are processed and distributed accurately.

Methods of Payment and Tracking

Child support payments can be made through several methods, including online payments, bank transfers, or by mail. The Arizona Child Support Clearinghouse provides tools to track payments and ensure that both parents meet their obligations.

Custody and Child Support

In Arizona, custody decisions are based on the child's best interests. The court considers many factors, including the child's relationship with each parent, the stability of each home environment, and each parent's ability to meet the child's needs.

Relationship Between Custody and Child Support

Custody and child support are closely related but address different aspects of parenting responsibilities. Custody determines where the child will live and how decisions are made, while child support focuses on each parent's financial contributions.

Legal Decision-Making and Parenting Time

In Arizona, legal decision-making is typically awarded to one or both parents as part of the custody arrangement. This authority plays a role in determining child support, reflecting each parent's involvement and responsibility in the child's life.

Frequently Asked Questions

Contact Us and Discover How Genesis Family Law Can Assist

At Genesis Family Law & Divorce Lawyers, we offer expert guidance on all aspects of child support, including calculations, enforcement, and modifications. Our team is dedicated to helping you handle the legalities of child support and ensuring that your rights and responsibilities are addressed.

Whether you seek to establish a child support orders, address arrears, or modify existing orders, our experienced attorneys support you at every step.

If you have questions about child support, custody, or related issues, Genesis Family Law & Divorce Lawyers are here to help. Contact us for a consultation, and let our team's counsel constitute legal advice for you.

As the best child support lawyers in Arizona we often get asked, "do I have to pay as much child support if my ex spouse gets a pay increase?" Hi, I'm Kevin Jensen with the Law Offices of Kevin Jensen. You want to know what happens quite a bit in my office? I have mostly a father or an ex-husband come into my office and say, “Hey, you know what I just found out? I just found out that my wife who was working at Walmart just got a job at a doctor's office or at a dentist off making a whole bunch more money. I've been paying her child support for all these years. Can I go back and change that now?” It's a great question. It's one that comes up all the time. And the answer is maybe.

Anytime someone comes into our office to discuss potential modification of child support, and in this specific instance, to determine whether or not the child support amount will go down, we always have to consider all of the child support factors in determining whether or not there's been any substantial and ongoing change of circumstance. Remember, in order to modify child support, you have to demonstrate to the court that there has been a substantial and ongoing change of circumstance that necessitates this change in the child support amount. When it comes to child support, that usually means that there has to have been at least a 15% change in the amount of child support. So, if when we do a calculation, that increase in your ex-spouse's income lowers the amount of child support by at least 15%, then it may be an appropriate time to seek modification.

But keep in mind, we have to consider all of the other factors, including your income. So, as it is often the case when one spouse's income goes up over time, so does the other spouse's income, we would have to look at your income to determine if it's gone up, and if that has any impact on the amount of child support. We also have to consider whether there has been a change in any cost of health insurance, whether there is daycare being paid and how much. These are all important factors in determining whether or not your child support will change.

But it is certainly the case that if you find out that the spouse who you've been paying child support to has some sort of significant increase in pay, that could be the perfect time to come and meet with an attorney to discuss possible modification. So, if you find yourself in that situation, I would invite you to give us a call here at the Law Offices of Kevin Jensen, and schedule a time to meet with one of our attorneys. We’ll take the time to go through the modification process with you and help you to determine whether or not now's the time to go forward with a child support modification case. Thank you.

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As the best child support lawyers in Arizona we often get asked, "what should I ask an attorney in my child support modification consultation?" Hi, I'm Kevin Jensen with the Law Offices of Kevin Jensen. You're receiving this video because you've reached out to our office and requested a consultation with one of our attorneys involving modification of child support. Believe me when I tell you, one of the most common things that people reach out to us to discuss is child support modification. We know this is a really important issue when you're raising children, and something that can cause a lot of stress. So, what I wanted to do is send you this video to help you prepare for our discussion so that we can maximize our time together.

First, I want you to understand that anytime a person seeks modification of child support in Arizona, they have to demonstrate to the court that there's been some kind of substantial and ongoing change of circumstance. When it comes to child support, that usually means that there's been some sort of change in financial circumstances that justifies going back to court and having the court modify the current child support order. That could include losing your job, getting a reduction in pay. Or if you're asking the court to increase the child support you're receiving, perhaps the other spouse has received a pay raise or had some other sort of change in income. In Arizona, it's necessary to show the court that there's been at least a 15% change in the amount of child support in order for child support to be modified.

So, in order for us to best use our time when we're together, here's the information I'm going to ask you to consider and come prepared to discuss. First of all, if you can bring any existing orders with you. That's very helpful for us to understand where things stand right now. That would include any prior child support calculations the court may have entered. Secondly, we'll need to know how much your income is, and as best as you understand, the income of the other parent. We also will need to know who is covering health insurance for the children, and how much they're paying each month for health insurance only for the children. If you're in a situation where you have to use daycare, please come prepared with any information regarding the daycare costs for your child or for your children. It's always helpful, if you can, to bring a copy of an invoice or a printout of what you have been paying to your childcare provider.

Finally, we also need to know how much parenting time each parent has with the child. Generally, that's going to be in the current parenting plan orders. So, once again, if you can make sure to bring your current orders with you, that will help us determine what each parent is entitled to in terms of parenting time. What I like to do when I do a child support modification is do some unofficial child support calculations with you. The only way we can do that is if you can come prepared with the information that I've asked you to come with in this video. And as you're considering these issues, if you have any other questions involving anything related to child support, please come prepared to discuss those as well. This could include covering health insurance, who pays what when it comes to uncovered medical costs, and the division of taxes. Once again, thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to meet with you. We look forward to seeing you soon.

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As the best child support lawyers in Arizona we often get asked, "what happens with child support in the state of Arizona if the parents share equal parenting time?" You might be thinking that nobody pays, right? Well, that's not correct. In Arizona, typically, the parent who's making more money is still going to pay some child support, even if the party share equal parenting time. There's other factors that are going to go into that, including the cost of health insurance, and the cost of daycare. But if you share equal parenting time and you make more money, there's still a pretty good chance you're going to be paying some child support

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As the best child support enforcement lawyers in Arizona we often get asked, “what can I do if my ex spouse is not following the courts order?” I want to talk a little bit today about something that comes up all the time in family law cases. This usually comes up after you’ve already been to court. It could be after you’ve gotten some temporary orders or could be after your case has been resolved in it’s entirety. And the issue that arises is: you’ve got these court orders, but for whatever reason one of the parties decides they don’t think they need to follow them and so what almost always happens is, we get a call from our client who says you know, “My ex husband or my ex wife isn’t following the court order. They’re not bringing the kids back when they’re supposed to. I’m not getting the child support I’m supposed to be paid. They’re not paying the spousal maintenance. What do I do?” And it’s a very frustrating situation for the client to be in and something that you feel like at that point in the case you should be done and everyone should be playing nice, but unfortunately sometimes that does not happen.

So what do you do when that situation occurs? Well, there’s a couple of approaches to any situation when someone isn’t following a court order. The first thing that I always advise my clients do is to make every effort possible to try to resolve the situation with the other party without having to go to court. Now, why would you do that? Well, the main reason is because going back to court is always expensive. It always takes time. It always takes money and nobody likes to go back to court. In fact, it usually requires you to put on that adversarial persona again and you know everyone’s putting their fists up and fighting. So what I usually advise my client is that we reach out to the other party, or in some cases their representative/their attorney, and try to work things out. Candidly that doesn’t always work, so what it often requires is that we file something with the court called the motion to enforce or a motion for contempt. And in filing a motion to enforce or contempt, you’re asking the court to enforce a court order, make them follow the orders that have already been entered in the case and to hold them in contempt.

Contempt is a situation where somebody knows about a court order and they’re not following it, even if they have the ability to do so. So, for example, contempt would not be a situation where somebody’s withholding the kids, because maybe they got stopped at an airport or missed a flight or something like that. It’s not intentional; but, if they’re purposely not paying child support, purposely withholding the kids, being belligerent, that would be a good situation where you would file a motion for contempt and enforcement with the court. Typically, what happens is the court’s going to hold a hearing to see if we can just resolve it on our own. If not, the court will schedule an evidentiary hearing where both parties can put on evidence and the court decides whether or not the person has willfully violated the court order. What happens if a court finds someone has willfully violated a court order? Well, there’s a number of sanctions that the court can enter. One of the typical sanctions is that the other party can be ordered to pay attorney fees. In the case of child support, the court may order a large payment to make up for past due child support. In the case of withholding children, the court might order some make up time.

Obviously, these are situations that you don’t want to find yourself in. You certainly don’t want to be the person who’s violating the court order, because usually the courts aren’t very happy with you and you’re going to find yourself probably paying attorney fees and having other potential sanctions. But, that’s the typical process for dealing with a situation where someone is not following the court order. So as in any situation, if you find yourself dealing with someone who’s not following an order issued by a family court, my advice is: give us a call here at the law offices of Kevin Jensen. We’ve dealt with hundreds and hundreds of cases involving enforcement of court orders. We would love to schedule a time for you to come down, sit down with us, talk about your situation, so that we can give you the best advice possible in how to address this sometimes very serious situation. Thank you.

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As the best child support lawyers in Arizona we often get asked, “what should I bring to my child support modification consultation?” You’re receiving this short video because you’ve taken the time to schedule a consultation with our office to discuss your child support modification matter. In order to make our meeting as productive as possible and to help us give you the best advice as possible, I wanted to talk about some of the information that you can bring your consultation to help make it as productive as we can make it.

In a child support modification matter, the primary issue is that there has been a substantial change of circumstance that requires us to go back to court and asked the court to adjust the child support. The typical changes of circumstances with child support are going to usually be a change in income, perhaps a change in the cost of daycare, or health insurance, or even in some cases a change in parenting time. In order to make our time productive, please come prepared to discuss those changes specifically. If there’s been a change in income., then we would need to know what it was before and what your current income is now, or the income of the other parent.

It’s always very helpful in modification matter for you to bring your prior orders with you. That gives me an opportunity to look at what the prior orders are and how in the case of child support, child support was calculated. With that information, we’re going to be able to give you a much better idea of whether or not your case is a good modification case. Thank you once again for taking the time to come and me with us. We look forward to seeing you soon. Thank you.

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As the best child support lawyers in Arizona we often get asked, “why should I hire an attorney to assist me with child support modification in AZ?” So the other day I had a mother of  four children come into my office. She and her husband had been divorced for several years. Her husband was ordered to pay child support of about $350 four years ago for these four children. Doesn’t seem like a lot of money honestly. But she recently found out that her husband is making a lot more money and she wanted to know if there was anything that she could do to get an increase in child support. Because obviously the older your kids get, the more expensive they get. Anyone who is a parent knows that.

The answer to her question is simply; yes you can actually go back to court and ask the court to increase child support. Now, what is the court going to look at in determining whether or not one parent should actually pay more child support than they were previously ordered to pay. The factors are pretty straightforward and the same in any kind of a modification type of a situation involving children. That is; has there been a substantial change of circumstances that now require the court to make a change and would that change of circumstance, would the change that you’re asking for, be in the best interest of the children?

When it comes to an increase in child support, that can be a very difficult situation because obviously, it goes without saying that the other spouse, the one who’s paying the child support, probably doesn’t want to pay any more than he’s already paying. Sometimes it takes an aggressive family law attorney to go and get the information that is going to be required to show the court that he’s actually making more money and thus, change is necessary. Things like: bank records, payroll records, tax records, all of these things can show that an ex spouse is making more money now, or has different streams of income that will justify a court increasing the child support order. There’s nothing more important than making sure your children are taken care of.

At the law offices of Kevin Jensen, we take that very seriously. We want to make sure that especially mothers out there have all the resources they need in these difficult times to make sure their children are taken care of. If you have any questions or need some assistance in this area, give us a call we’d love to help you.

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As the best child support lawyers in Arizona we often get asked, “how do I get a modification to my child support orders in AZ?” Today I want to give you a scenario that I hear quite a bit and especially in the economy that our nation is facing right now, and that is: “2 years ago, 3 years ago, my wife and I or my spouse and I were divorced and I was required to pay X amount of dollars for child support. Well now unfortunately my job has either been cut back in terms of hours or I’ve lost my job altogether. I can’t afford to pay what the judge ordered me to pay in child support 3 years ago. What in the world can I do?”

Well in Arizona, what we can do, what we’re allowed to do, is to petition the court to modify your child support order/your obligation. There is a process that you have to go through and that is that you need to file a petition with the court, and you have to explain to the court what has changed. Why should the court now go back and change what the court decided to do 3 years ago. The specific law in Arizona that a person must follow when seeking a change in child support or child custody (any kind of orders relating to the children) is; you’ve got to be able to demonstrate that there’s been a substantial change of circumstances. So an obvious example of that is, “I’ve lost my job.” That’s pretty substantial. That the change is ongoing and that whatever you’re asking the court to do (and this is the most important thing of all) whatever you’re asking the court to do, is going to be in the best interest of the children.

Getting the court to change these things is not easy, however; if you have an experienced Arizona family law attorney, they will know what factors the court looks at when deciding whether or not to modify the child support order. At the law offices of Kevin Jensen we’ve handled hundreds of modification matters involving child support. We’d love to help you out. Please give us a call to see if we can help you. Thank you.

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As the best child support lawyers in Arizona we often get asked, “how is child support determined in Arizona?” Today I want to talk to you about probably the single most fought about issue in Arizona divorces, and that is: child support. Now, it probably goes without saying that you probably don’t have to wonder too hard why people fight over child support… Imagine yourself being a soon to be divorced mother, and in most cases it’s the mother who is going to get child support although that’s not always the case. Perhaps your husband has been sole bread winner for the entire term of your marriage, you don’t have education, you don’t have the earning ability that your husband has, and you’re worried to death about “how am I going to take care of these kids, what am I going to do?”.

Well, child support is one way that the law has provided for one parent to receive sort of an equalization payment to make up for the time that the other parent doesn’t have the children. There are a number of factors that go into child support in Arizona. In Arizona we have a set of guidelines that have been essentially enacted by the legislature, by judges to help us determine how much a parent has to pay to help support their children. And it’s typically going to be the parent that has the children the least amount of time. The main factor in any child support analysis is going to be which parent has the children for the most amount of time, some people call that “who’s the primary custodial parent?”. The second major factor is going to be the income that each parent has. Now, in Arizona, about a year ago the legislature came out with some new guidelines that indicate that even if you’re not working the judge can assign you minimum wage for a 40 hour work week with the theory being that most people can go out and get a job at minimum wage 40 hours a week. So even if you’re not making money, you’re going to be assigned an income for purposes of child support.

Once we gather all of the financial information regarding both parents (how much they make each month, what their monthly bills are, are they paying anything in health insurance, are you paying anything for daycare etc.) Then we’re able to put that into a calculator. Now, we use the same calculator here at the law offices of Kevin Jensen that the judges, family law judges, throughout the state use to determine child support. And we can use that information to come up with an amount of child support that you should be payed. Child support is not finalized until the judge signs off on it. It has to be signed off and approved by the judge. And they will follow the guidelines almost to the T. In some circumstances, we can deviate from the guidelines but there has to be an explanation as to why we’re not following what the Arizona guidelines for child support say.

At the law offices of Kevin Jensen, our primary concern for any parent is to make sure they’re getting and paying the appropriate amount of child support. We know that taking care of your children is the most important thing you can do. We always keep their best interests in mind in anything that we do and especially when it comes to child support. So if you have any questions, please give us a call at the law offices of Kevin Jensen. Thank you.

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As the best child support lawyers in Arizona we often get asked, “what are some common questions about child support?” I often meet with prospective clients who come in to my office. They’ve decided to get a divorce or the other spouse has decided to to move forward with divorce and one of the things that they are most worried about, and this is especially true for mothers, especially mothers who have stayed home and taken care of the children is, “How am I going to support myself and my children going forward?” I’ve seen many cases where parents will come in and just fear is written across their faces, wondering how they’re going to make ends meet and it’s a fair and and and very understandable concern to have. In Arizona when you have children, child support is one of the ways that that the law allows parents to share in the expenses of raising children. As a parent of four boys, I know how expensive kids are. They’re very expensive and the older they get the more expensive they get. So in Arizona, when parents get divorced, one of the things the court is always going to look at is child support. Child support in Arizona is relatively straightforward. We have a calculator that judges use to determine what child support is going to be, what the amount is gonna be, under the Arizona child support guidelines. And the guidelines are just a bunch of rules, I guess is what you would call them, to help courts understand how their supposed to determine child support.

In practice, there’s about four different factors that will go into the child support calculator to determine what child support going to be in any given case. Now, those those factors are going to vary from case to case, so I have a lot of people that come in and say, “Hey, what do you think the child support going to be in my case?” It’s really virtually impossible for us to tell you that until we actually get the numbers that we can put into the calculator and make the calculation. But to give you a little bit of guidance, here’s what a court’s going to look at. First and foremost, they’re going to look at the income of each parent. So a very typical scenario is; husband has been working for the entire marriage, he’s making a hundred and twenty, a hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year, and mom has stayed home with the kids and been a stay at home mom. Well, what what about mom? Do we assign her an income for purposes of child support? The answer that question is: yes, we do in most cases. Of course, there are exceptions to these rules, but in most cases the court is still going to attribute to mother some sort of an income and most of the time, it’s minimum wage. The theory being that a parent can go out and at least get a minimum wage job, no matter what their work, history or education history is. So each parent’s income will be put into the calculator.

The next number that goes into the calculator is the cost of health insurance for the child or for the children. Whatever the cost of that health insurance is, that will go into the calculator on the side of the parent who’s paying it. So if a parent’s paying three hundred dollars a month for health insurance for the children, they will get kind of a credit on their side of the calculator. We also look at daycare costs. Daycare costs are kind of interesting because, obviously, in this day and age, if a parent’s got to work and they have young kids, they have to have some help and most of the time that means some sort of daycare. So whatever the cost of daycare is and whoever is paying for it, that cost will go in to that parents side. The next factor is parenting time. Now in other videos, I’ve talked about parenting time and as you may know, most courts favor 50/50 parenting time, but that’s not always the case. In cases where 50/50 is not going to be what the parenting time is, the court will put into the calculator the number of parenting days for the parent who has the fewest parenting days. So whichever parent has less than fifty percent, and we literally go through and we calculate based on the parenting plan, how many days that parent has the children in his or her home. Once these numbers go into the calculator it literally spits out an amount and under the Arizona child support guidelines, that is what child support is going to be in your particular case.

Now, does it have to always be that number? It doesn’t. There are some cases where the court can deviate from the guidelines, but the only way that a court can really deviate from the guidelines is if the parents agree to do something different then what the guidelines say it. So, for example, let’s say they do the calculation and it says three hundred dollars a month. Could the parties then agree that the father should pay six hundred dollars a month? The answer that question is absolutely. If the parties agree. If they don’t agree, it’s very unlikely that a court will do anything other than what the guidelines say child support should be, which is whatever the calculator says. The big fight in child support comes in dealing with the numbers that go into the calculator. So a very common situation that comes up and one that came up in a recent case that I had involved a situation where the husband was self employed. I represented the mother, we’ll call her name Holly. Holly had been married to her husband for ten years. They had three kids and she was a stay at home mom. Husband ran a business, and one of the big fights in child support is what do you put into a child support calculator for income for a person who doesn’t get a paycheck every two weeks? You can’t just look at a pay stub and figure out what they make, and so we had to go and get bank records, some business records, tax returns, other financial documents, and try to determine what father’s income was based on those documents. We were able to determine that based on all of those documents father made about a hundred and twenty five thousand dollars a year. With those numbers, we were able to do a child support calculation and Holly was able to get a pretty substantial amount of child support that I think took a big burden, a big stress, off of her shoulders. The other thing to keep in mind with child support is that it will last until the youngest child turns eighteen and graduates from high school. Now it can change, it can be modified as time goes by, because circumstances change, but child support is one of those things does stay in place for a period of time.

So child support is an issue that we deal with a lot and if you have questions about child support or if you’re going through a divorce and wonder what is the other spouse going to be paying me for child support, come down to the Law Offices of Kevin Jensen, meet with myself or our other attorney Brandon Yost, and we can sit down and talk to you about your particular case, give you some advice to help you get some peace of mind going into this next phase of your life.

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