Generally, a parent who has custody for the greater portion of the year may claim the child as a dependent, providing that both parents together provided more than 50% of the child’s support.

Your divorce decree, Judgment of Divorce, will likely outline which party is able to claim the child for tax purposes. If the Judgment of Divorce does not mention the child tax exemption, then look to the Uniform Child Support Order in your case. The amount of child support considers which party is able to claim the child for tax purposes and creates an adjustment for the other parent who does not receive this credit.

If a divorce is currently pending, then the Uniform Child Support Order would be the controlling document to outline the exemption credit.

My Ex-Wife said I can claim the child tax exemption this year, but your Judgment of Divorce says she is able to claim the child for tax purposes.   Can we make this agreement outside the Judgment of Divorce?

You should always strive to follow your Judgment of Divorce. In fact, if you do not follow the Judgment of divorce you could have repercussions. Nevertheless, the custodial parent, or in this case the Ex-Wife can relinquish the child tax exemption if she chooses. The IRS has a particular form for this relinquishment, Form 8332. The child tax exemption can be relinquished for one year or for a number of years.

This is not the recommended way in which to pay support. Once a support order has been established, your child support should be taken directly from your paycheck. If you are unemployed, then you are responsible for paying child support on your own. Regardless of how you pay support, once a support order has been established, by the court, you should make payments to either the Friend of the Court in your county or the Michigan Disbursement Unit (depending on the preference of your Friend of the Court). The Friend of the Court in your county keeps track of all support that has been paid by you to the other party, if you pay the other party directly the court will have no knowledge of the payment. If the court has no knowledge of the payment, they will be unable to give you credit for the payments you have made. If you pay the court directly the court can keep track of your current obligation, any arrearages owed, and future payments in an accurate manner.

An arrearage for child support purposes means that there is an outstanding monthly child support obligation that has not been paid. Unfortunately if you have recently been ordered to pay child support through the Friend of the Court, then you may likely be in arrears. After a child support order has been established, it then takes time for the child support order to be processed. After the Friend of the Court processes the child support order, the Friend of the Court then sends the income withholding to the Michigan Disbursement Unit; the Michigan Disbursement Unit then processes the order and forwards that Order to the Payer’s employer. After the Order has been processed by all of these agencies, then child support is automatically deducted from a Payer’s check.

The time is takes for all of these agencies to process this single Order can take weeks. Therefore, by the time child support is directly taken out of your pay, you are already a month in arrears. Most courts understand that Payer’s are likely in arrears initially.

Child Support takes numerous factors into consideration including: the income of the parties’, the needs of the child(ren), the time each parent spends with the child(ren), whether or not the child is in daycare, who pays health insurance for the child(ren), and a array of other factors.

Child Support is calculated using a pre-established formula; it is usually computed by your local Friend of the Court or often by an attorney with working knowledge of the interplay between the child support factors and the party’s unique circumstance.

Below are some typical questions parties have in regards to child support.

Does the child support formula take into consideration that I have other children?

Yes, the child support formula takes into consideration whether or not you have additional children, biological or adopted, living in your home or for which you pay support.

The formula does not take into consideration whether or not you have step-children living in your home.

Does the child support formula take into consideration who will be claiming the child(ren) for tax purposes?

Yes, the child support formula takes into consideration who is able to claim the child(ren) for tax purposes. Usually the party with sole physical custody of the child(ren) is the person who claims the children for tax purposes.

Should I care if the child support formula has some inaccuracies, for example if it says I only have 84 overnights with my child(ren) but I actually spend more time with him/them?

Yes, you should scrutinize any child support recommendation you receive. If you allow a small inaccuracy to become an order of the court without correcting it, this small inaccuracy could have a larger impact in the future.

Not necessarily. There is an “opt out” process which may allow some parents to negate the need for Friend of the Court services. In these particular cases, child support is not automatically deducted from the Payer’s check. Instead, the Payer pays child support, directly to the Payee, by way of cash, check, or automatic transfer. This process, as described, negates the Friend of the Court service charge of $3.50 per month.

Before deciding to “opt out” of the Friend of the Court process, there are various considerations that must be addressed.

Perhaps. A lot of people think that if they share equal parenting time with their children, then neither parent will pay child support. This is often untrue. The child support calculations in Michigan are based on a formula. The formula considers various factors including: income, health insurance, daycare costs, and overnights along with other factors. Even if two parents have the same number of overnights, one parent may in fact pay child support. This usually occurs in cases when one parent makes substantially more money than the other parent

The purpose of the child support formula is to balance the needs and incomes of the parties without impoverishing either party. Therefore, in order to keep the children accustom to the same stand of living in each individual household, child support may be necessary.

The answer to this question is likely nothing. The Friend of the Court does not hear complaints regarding alleged misappropriation of child support payments. The court assumes that child support is being spent on necessities for the children. There is no system that will analyze the way in which a person spends child support payments.