Understanding Illinois’ Shared Parenting Child Support Formula

 Posted on August 15, 2019 in Child Support

Illinois calculates the child support payments that one parent owes the other by using an income shares table. To determine your child support payments, you would start by adding up the combined net incomes of yourself and your co-parent. Each row in the income shares table has an income range. When you find the row where your combined incomes fall, you will go across to the column for the number of children you share. The number you see is the base level of the combined child support obligation that you must pay together each month.

Your proportionate incomes will determine the share of the child support obligation that each of you are responsible for. If your income is 60 percent of your combined incomes, then you are responsible for 60 percent of the child support obligation. The nonresidential parent is typically the one who pays child support to the residential parent, even if they have a lower income. The formula for determining the payment amount changes when parents have a shared parenting arrangement.

Shared Parenting Formula

Illinois defines shared parenting as a parenting schedule in which each parent has the children overnight at least 146 times per year, which would be a 60-40 division of parenting time. The formula for calculating child support in a shared parenting arrangement is more complicated than the basic formula:

• You still start by finding your combined child support obligation in the income shares table;
• You then multiply that amount by 1.5 to come up with a new combined obligation;
• You divide the child support obligation based on your proportionate incomes, just as you normally would;
• You then multiply each parent’s individual child support obligation by the percentage of parenting time that the children have with the other parent; and
• The two totals offset, with the parent who owes more child support paying the difference to the other parent.

The parent paying child support will have lower monthly payments in a shared parenting arrangement because it is assumed that each parent will pay for most of their own child-related expenses.

Contact a DuPage County Divorce Lawyer

Some co-parents prefer a division of parenting time that is close to equal. If you are interested in a shared parenting arrangement, you should consider how the arrangement may change your expected child support contributions. A lower child support payment does not mean that your child-related expenses will be cheaper. A Naperville, Illinois, divorce attorney at Calabrese Associates, P.C., can help you decide how you want to divide your parenting time. Schedule a consultation by calling 630-393-3111.

Source:

http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=075000050K505

https://www.illinois.gov/hfs/SiteCollectionDocuments/TechnicalDocumentationIllinoisScheduleNetIncomeTable.pdf