Minnesota Legislature in 2007 modified state child support law such that it is determined based on five factors:
- Parent A’s gross monthly income;
- Parent B’s gross monthly income;
- The monthly cost for daycare, if any;
- The monthly cost for medical and dental insurance coverage, if any; and
- The amount of parenting time the parents have using a 0%-10%, 10%-45%, and 45.1% or more parenting time schedule.
Factor #5 is changing on August 1, 2018, to where child support takes into consideration the number of court-ordered overnights the parents have with the children. While this may not seem like a big change, it is for most parents. Most Divorce Decree and court Orders do not assign parents a specific number of overnights on a monthly or yearly basis. It may be necessary in some cases to have to return to family court to determine those specific number of overnights to best calculate child support.
The Minnesota Department of Health provides an online calculator allowing parents to calculate child support based upon the five factors in place today. The link to that website is found here on the child support calculator. The State is working on a new calculator that takes into account the new law so it is not available at this time for parents to weigh and consider how this new law could affect them.
Parents wanting to know more about this law change may want to consider consulting with a knowledgeable family law attorney prior to August 1, 2018, to strategize how to best use the change to Minnesota child support law.
Contact experienced family law attorney Jessica L. Sterle at (218) 722-2655 to schedule a consultation to discuss child support and parenting time.