Maryland uses a formula to calculate child support known as the Child Support Guidelines. This formula is usually used by the court to determine the amount of child support, unless it can be proven that the guidelines would be unfair or inappropriate in a particular case. If you are a divorcing parent, or if you have never been married to your child's other parent and are ending the relationship, you may need information about support of the children. It is recommended to talk to an attorney or someone from the Office of Child Support Control for more information on how to calculate the right amount of child support.
The state of Maryland has specialized guidelines that consider child care costs separately from the overall costs of raising a child when calculating child support payments. This is due to the high costs of one-time child care. If the court decides to deviate from the guidelines, they must include conclusions that indicate what the scheduled amount would be, how the order differs from that amount, and why the order is in the best interest of the children.
Child support
is an ongoing payment made by a non-custodial parent to help financially support their children.The Child Support Guidelines try to estimate the percentage of income that parents would spend on their children if they lived together. If a parent who owes child support has been “voluntarily impoverished”, the court can “impute the income to the father”. In co-parenting agreements, both parents must maintain an essentially full-time residence for a child, resulting in an overall increase in both the total costs of raising children and in the expenses of each parent. However, any decision made by the court to reduce the amount of child support must be in the best interests of the children.
If there is a change in monthly income for either parent, or if there has been a change in child support guidelines that could increase or decrease the amount of support by at least 25%, then either parent can request a modification. Although both parents are allocated a percentage of child support under a Maryland support order, only the parent who does not have custody will have to pay child support directly to the other parent. You can deduct from your real adjusted income any child support or alimony you pay as part of a previous court order. At the time of writing, the average alimony in Maryland is 66.6 percent for the parent who does not have custody of their children.
