Child Support
In Arizona we have Child Support Guidelines that are followed by the Court. Without an agreement of the parties or extraordinary circumstances, the child support amount determined by the Child Support Guidelines is what a parent will pay.
To run a child support calculation you will need each parent's gross (pre-tax) monthly income, whether a parent is paying or receiving spousal maintenance, whether a parent is paying Court ordered child support from another relationship, whether the parent is the custodian of a child or other children or whether a parent is supporting a natural or adopted child that is not subject to a Court order.
The Guidelines provide a 10% increase for any child over 12 years of age. You will need to know what the monthly cost is for medical/dental/vision insurance for just that child or children that are subject to the court order.
The next thing you must calculate is the number of days per year the parent paying child support will have parenting time with the child or children. Other than parenting time and visitation credit, everything else in the Parent's Worksheet is monthly.
Once you have the above information, you can run your own child support calculation.
Typically, child support will be ordered to begin on the first day of the month following service of process. That means that a parent has filed papers with the Court and served them on the other parent. At some point, child support will be ordered to begin back to the first day of the month following the date that the other parent was served. There are certain circumstances where child support would start on another date, but generally it is as set forth above.
The entry of a child support order does not happen automatically. A parent has to ask the Court for a hearing to order child support. Many people believe that because they filed a certain document the Court will take over from there. That simply is not true. The parties and the lawyers are responsible for moving a case through the Court, not the Court.
Once a child support order is entered, it will remain in effect until a parent files to change it or the child becomes emancipated. If you are considering a child support modification (either asking for an increase in child support or to pay less child support), in order for the Court to grant your request, the resulting child support amount in the new calculation must be a 15% or greater change from the old amount. That means you must have either a 15% increase or a 15% decrease from what is currently ordered.
If you would like a copy of the Child Support Guidelines, please click here
2011AZChildSupportGuidelines.pdf [642.00 Kb 6/8/2011]
If you would like to run your own child support calculation, please click here.
If you are interested in contacting Owens & Perkins about child support, click here or call us at 480.994.8824.