From Numbers to Answers: How to Tackle the Child Support Worksheet | Episode 207

How Child Support is Calculated in Colorado Divorce

In this episode of Divorce at Altitude, Ryan Kalamaya walks through the detailed process of child support calculation in Colorado divorce cases, using a hypothetical example with Eric and Melanie Wolfe. Ryan breaks down the various factors that impact child support, with a focus on the Child Support Worksheet that is used in Colorado courts to determine the amount of child support owed.

Ryan begins by explaining the key inputs that drive child support determinations: income and parenting time. With an example of Eric earning $120,000 per year and Melanie earning $70,000, he demonstrates how these numbers are plugged into the Child Support Worksheet to calculate support obligations. The worksheet factors in various elements such as spousal maintenance (alimony) and health insurance payments for the children, as well as the number of overnights each parent has with the children.

In this episode, Ryan provides concrete examples showing how even small changes in parenting time (such as increasing the number of overnights for one parent) can significantly affect the amount of child support. He also highlights how removing spousal maintenance from the equation can increase the child support amount owed. Through these examples, Ryan illustrates how each input in the worksheet plays a critical role in the final child support calculation.

Episode Highlights

Key Inputs to Child Support Calculation
Ryan explains that income and parenting time are the primary drivers of child support in Colorado divorce cases, and discusses how these elements impact the final support amount.

The Role of the Child Support Worksheet
Ryan dives into the Child Support Worksheet, which is used by Colorado courts to calculate child support. He provides a step-by-step breakdown of how the worksheet is completed, factoring in elements like spousal maintenance and health insurance payments.

Impact of Parenting Time on Child Support
The episode shows how changing the number of overnights for each parent can affect the child support calculation, with examples showing how increasing or decreasing parenting time alters the final amount owed.

Spousal Maintenance and Child Support
Ryan discusses the interaction between spousal maintenance and child support, showing how changes in maintenance payments can either increase or decrease the amount of child support owed.

What is Divorce at Altitude? 

Ryan Kalamaya and Amy Goscha provide tips and recommendations on issues related to divorce, separation, and co-parenting in Colorado. Ryan and Amy are the founding partners of an innovative and ambitious law firm, Kalamaya | Goscha, that pushes the boundaries to discover new frontiers in family law, personal injuries, and criminal defense in Colorado. 

To subscribe to Divorce at Altitude, click here and select your favorite podcast player. To subscribe to Kalamaya | Goscha's YouTube channel where many of the episodes will be posted as videos, click here.  If you have additional questions or would like to speak to one of our attorneys, give us a call at 970-429-5784 or email us at info@kalamaya.law.

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DISCLAIMER: THE COMMENTARY AND OPINIONS ON THIS PODCAST IS FOR ENTERTAINMENT AND INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES AND NOT FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROVIDING LEGAL ADVICE. CONTACT AN ATTORNEY IN YOUR STATE OR AREA TO OBTAIN LEGAL ADVICE ON ANY OF THESE ISSUES.

Transcript

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Ryan Kalamaya 0:01

Welcome to Divorce At Altittude, a podcast on Colorado family law. I'm Ryan Kalamaya. Each week, along with my business partner and co-host, Amy Goscha, or an expert, we discuss a particular topic related to Divorce or co-parenting in Colorado. In addition, we have created a short series of lessons that will take you through the legal process of Divorce and answer your questions from simple to complex. Divorce isn't easy. The end of a marriage, especially when children are involved, brings a great deal of loss and change. We hope these practical tips and insights will help you on your journey to a new. And better life. This is a how to episode on child support in a Colorado divorce. Now in episode 203, which is titled Child Support Basics, I gave a high level overview of how child support works or the inputs and factors that really drive child support. But it was very much on a high level. And I mentioned the income and parenting time are the primary factors that determine child support in a Colorado divorce. And I mentioned as listeners know, we have our hypothetical divorce clients, Eric and Melanie Wolfe. And if they have children income and parenting time are going to change the amount of child support awarded or ordered in the divorce by the court. Now, I'll get into more granular, concrete examples in this episode, and I'm going to do a screen share with the child support worksheet, and I'll explain that a little bit more in detail. And for people that are listening, you can hopefully follow along, but this episode is primarily going to be focused on the visual because it's just much easier to follow along. For Those that can see, you can see that I have an Erica Melanie Wolf Child Support Worksheet or the Family Law Software, which is a program that the court uses and it's available on online, the Child Support Worksheet. Our version within Kalamaya Gosha is the paid version. And so we have a little bit different screens, but in essence, child support is really driven by. the worksheet. I'll have a separate episode on what happens when the incomes are above the child support threshold or worksheet. But in this example, listeners can see that I have Adam and Eve who are the children of Erica Melanie Wolfe. And right now the parenting time is equally divided between Eric and Melanie Wolf. And you'll see why this matters. In this example Eric makes 120, 000 and Melanie makes 70, 000. Again, I'll have other episodes talking about how we determine income. I've had previous episodes discussing unemployment or voluntary underemployment, self employed income, all of those things. But for purposes of this episode, it is just simple that Eric makes 120, 000 per year and Melanie makes 70, 000. Now one person pays the child support or rather the health insurance for the children. And I'll get into that. So that's 500. In this example you can see that there is a maintenance guideline amount and here's the maintenance worksheet. So we're going to assume for purposes of this hypothetical that Eric is going to pay 375 per month in maintenance. Now that matters because when, if we go to the child support worksheet, you will see that this is a worksheet B. So It has shared physical care, and it has Melanie's income at a monthly breakdown of, based on her 70, 000 70, 000 per year, rather, and Eric is at 10, 000 per month, which multiplied by 12 is obviously 120, 000. Listeners, you can understand that we have 375 of maintenance, and that is included. It's an addition to Melanie's income, and it is a subtraction to Melanie's income. Eric's income. There is a multiple of 1. 33. And that's because we always talk about gross income when we are dealing with child, the income for both child support and maintenance. And the 0. 33 takes into consideration taxes. So we, the 375 of maintenance is tax free. And so that is the equivalent of roughly. 499 before taxes or gross income. And so you will see that is on the child support worksheet. We'll get into some of these other line items, the child support payments for other children the. Post secondary education contributions all of those things can matter, but they are, fairly rare, but this scenario contemplates that Eric is going to be paying Melanie maintenance spousal maintenance, alimony and that's going to be included. So what we have is the monthly adjusted gross income. And then we have the percentage of share of income. What the idea behind child support is coming up with who is responsible for what on general expenses for the children. I have children and, the amount of money it costs to feed them, to provide heat in the house, to have additional living space. The Child Support Commission goes through and calculates what is the general amount of raising. Children, obviously raising children in different areas can result in different costs. So for example, Aspen is going to be different than La Junta out on the eastern plains. But what we do is we factor in the general cost of raising children. Then you can see that the number of overnights is equally divided. You could do 182. 5. I have 183. For Melanie, whereas Eric has 182, obviously there's 365 days in a year. So there's going to be an odd number of overnights. Again, I'll get into some of these particularities. But generally speaking, we look at the number of overnights. And again, I'll have a separate episode on what happens if there's a dispute over the number of overnights and how you take into consideration vacation and holidays. And but for purposes of this episode, we're looking at equal overnights or roughly equal overnights. And what we also can note here is if we move down to the deductions there'll be work related childcare. If someone if a child is in preschool or daycare, then that would be a deduction and I can go through some hypotheticals showing really what that. We'll do, and then the health insurance, there's going to be health insurance for the children. It's 500 that is paid by Eric. Now, the end result is that Eric owes Melanie, in addition to the 375 of maintenance, he also owes her 175 in child support. Now, for purposes of brevity, I will just show you that if we were to change for example, Melanie has 200 overnights for both children and all things being equal or the same what that does and what we can see is that it increases the number or the amount of child support to 347. per month. And that was an increase over the 175. And that is because she has now more overnights for Eric. And so from Eric, and so theoretically she incurs more costs for food, for driving the children around, so on and so forth. Now, what happens if we remove the amount of spousal maintenance. If we remove spousal maintenance, so that 375 is removed, and we keep, again, the 200 overnights for Melanie we then increase from 347 of child support to 479 of child support. And that is because there is no longer an addition to Melanie's income and there is no longer a deduction from Eric's income. So you can see that the inputs can really matter in terms of the monthly amount of child support and in future episodes I'll get into and discuss how there can be Various arguments or disputes over, for example, the cost of extracurricular activities or other things such as income. But for now, listeners can hopefully appreciate that the amount that you put on the child support worksheet can really matter. And this is a much more worksheet, formulaic, Procedure. Although there is some flexibility, we will talk about examples or reasons that the court may deviate from the Child Support Worksheet, but this is, a much more rigid process than we would, go through in terms of maintenance. But for now, hopefully that gives you an example, some ideas and information regarding Child Support and how the Child Support Worksheet can be used. is used in a cholera divorce. Thanks for listening or watching this short lesson on the Divorce Ude podcast. If you found this helpful, please leave a review or share with a friend. It does help for others that are going through or thinking about a Divorce in Colorado. If you want to find out more information, Please visit Kalamaya Law or Divorce at Altittude dot com and that's K A L A M A Y A law. Remember, this is educational information, it's not intended to be legal advice. Please consult with an attorney about the particulars of your case. We're happy to answer questions. Feel free to give us a call at (970) 315-2365.