Child Support Basics: What Every Parent Needs to Know | Episode 203

Child Support in Colorado Divorce

In this episode of Divorce at Altitude, Ryan Kalamaya provides an overview of child support in Colorado divorce cases, explaining its purpose, how it's calculated, and the key factors that influence child support determinations. Using the example of Eric and Melanie Wolf, two hypothetical divorce clients, Ryan breaks down the essential elements of child support, focusing on how income and parenting time (overnights) directly affect the support amount.

Child support ensures children's needs are met after parents separate or divorce, covering basic expenses like food, housing, clothing, and educational costs. Ryan explains how Colorado has specific guidelines that courts must follow when determining the child support amount, emphasizing that the primary drivers are both income and parenting time. For example, if Melanie spends more time with the children than Eric, this will result in a different child support arrangement than if they share equal parenting time.

Episode Highlights

What is Child Support?
Ryan explains the purpose of child support, which ensures that children's basic needs are met after divorce and outlines the two primary factors: income and parenting time.

How is Child Support Calculated?
Learn how Colorado uses a formula to determine child support, factoring in both parents' incomes and the amount of time the children spend with each parent.

Factors That Affect Child Support
Ryan discusses how various factors, such as extracurricular expenses, medical needs, and childcare costs, can impact the child support calculation.

Common Child Support Issues
The episode delves into more complex issues, like voluntary unemployment and variable income, that can influence child support determinations.

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

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. Now, if Eric and Melanie Wolf have children that are under the age of 19, one issue that they're going to have to address is the amount of child support. Now, I'm gonna give a high level overview about what goes into child support, what it is how it's paid. In other episodes, I'm gonna Dig into specific issues that can frequently arise. The other source of information you could check out episode 201. It's called Alpine Support, Scaling the Heights of Child Support in Colorado. In that episode, Amy and I discuss things in more detail. It's one of a, it's a comprehensive episode, but for now, let's give an overview about what child support. Simply put, child support ensures that children's needs are met after parents separate or divorce, and the purpose is to provide a level playing field for both parents, and it's going to go into, it's going to be one paid by one parent to the other. If Eric and Melanie Wolf, our hypothetical divorce clients are going through a divorce, then Eric would pay. Melanie, a monthly amount. And what is going to go into that is subject to what we'll cover next. But really, it's to contribute to the cost of raising children. It's designed to cover the basic needs like food, housing, clothing, and educational expenses. There is a formula or spreadsheet for and it's primarily based on income and it's also focused on the amount of time that the children spend with each parent. We'll dissect that dynamic because it can get fairly complex and there's specific guidelines that the court has to follow. Now, I mentioned income and number of overnights. Those are the two primary drivers of child support. We're going to look at Eric's income compared to Melanie's income. And again, some of the episodes that we've done on spousal maintenance in terms of variable income, voluntary unemployment, and we'll get into some of the other ones in this subsequent series on child support. But, they are relevant. The Aspect of income is a key driver to child support, but in contrast to spousal maintenance, the amount of time a parent spends with a child is also a factor in determining child support. If Melanie has the children in the equal amount of time compared to Eric, that is going to result in a different child support award compared to her having the vast majority of the time, the number of overnights for the children. As I mentioned, there are different issues that typically come up variable income, voluntary unemployment. Another distinguishing feature is some of the deductions. And so that could be extracurricular activities. Hockey Private tutoring, private school those sorts of things can really drive medical expenses. If a child has special needs or is requiring special medical attention and a parent pays for that is going to change child support. Another issue is childcare. It's a work related childcare if a child is in. A daycare is in preschool and the parents are paying for that. Who pays for that can really matter. So again, we'll get into all of these different issues. But, for now, that gives you an overview of what child support is. and the basics of how it's calculated and we hope you have learned something about child support, and if you want to learn more, check out that episode 201, and some of the other episodes that we're going to be doing on child support. Thanks for joining us on Divorce at Altitude. 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.