Maryland Divorce Tips
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Some useful Maryland Divorce Tips
- With the exclusion of cases of shared physical custody, in other cases every parent's child support obligation is calculated by the addition of every parent's respective share of basic child support obligation, work related child care expenditure, extraordinary medical expenses and additional expenditure
- The court may issue orders or an agreement may be made between the partners regarding the following expenditure incurred on behalf of a child
- Transportation of child between the residences of the parents
- Attending a special or private elementary or secondary school to fulfill the specific educational requirements of the child
These expenditures are distributed between the parents in ratio of their adjusted actual incomes
- If there are any extraordinary medical expenses due to the child, then, these are added to the basic child support obligation. These expenses are distributed amongst the parents in ratio of their adjusted actual incomes
- For the following types of parents, a determination of potential income is not done
- The parent is not able to work due to mental or physical disability
- The parent has a child, who is aged less than 2 years, for whom the parents are severally and jointly responsible
- The amount of maintenance or spousal support is regarded as the actual income of the recipient of maintenance or spousal support. This amount is deducted from the gross income of the payer as per Section 12-201(c)(2). After this addition and subtraction is done, then the court proceeds further to determine the amount of child support
- The documentation of actual income comprises of the following
- Pay Stubs
- Employer statements otherwise admissible under the rules of evidence
- If self employed, then, the receipts and expenses
- Copies of each parent's 3 most recent federal tax returns
- If a self employed parent has experienced a raise or drop in income of 20 percent or more in a 1 year span within the past 3 years, the court then demands copies of federal tax returns of the 5 most recent years
- Shared physical custody implies that both parents contribute to the expenditure of the child(ren) in addition to the payment of child support and each parent retains the child(ren) overnight for more than 35 percent of the year
- Adjusted actual income is calculated in the following manner. The below mentioned amounts are subtracted from the actual income
- The amount of health insurance coverage for a child for whom the parents are severally and jointly responsible
- Amount of alimony or maintenance that has been actually paid, except as mentioned in 12-204(a)(2)
- Preexisting reasonable child support obligations that have been paid
- Depending on the various conditions in the case, the court regards the following items as actual income
- Prizes
- Gifts
- Capital Gains
- Severance Pay
Benefits received from means-tested public assistance programs, like those mentioned below, are not included in actual income
- Housing assistance
- Medical assistance
- Food stamps
- Supplemental security income
- Temporary cash assistance
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