Navigating The New Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines
By: Jerome V. Sweeney III
On September 15, 2017, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Trial Court enacted new superseding Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines. As has always been the case, the Guidelines are a rebuttable presumption of the amount of money to be paid in both establishing and modifying a Child Support Order. Also, these Guidelines are based upon a variety of factors and there is a rebuttable presumption that the amount as calculated is appropriate.
The critical changes made by the new Guidelines can best be summarized as follows:
Consideration for Daycare Expenses and Health Insurance.
Prior to the recent enactment, the adjustment for daycare and health insurance was “above the line”. Lawyers and litigants were consistently baffled by the minimum effect that large daycare costs and/or health insurance premiums had on the amount of child support ordered. Oftentimes, the recipient spouse would receive a Child Support Order that covered or barely covered the amount of daycare costs. The task force that was placed in charge of the new Guidelines tackled this issue by making an adjustment for child care and health care costs “below the line”. Without getting into too much detail, there is a more significant adjustment made for these kinds of expenses with the new Guidelines.
Parenting Time.
The prior Guidelines had a formula for a basic child support figure, a figure where the parties had equal parenting time, and a formula for a parent that had more than one-third but less than half of all parenting time. The task force did away with these three calculations and left us with two. There is a Guideline for when the parents do not have equal parenting time and a Guideline for when they do. Lawyers and litigants were frequently frustrated by the prior three-category parenting time approach because the more than one-third but less than half calculation was being abused and overly litigated.
Child Support for Children Between Ages 18 and 23.
This has been the “Wild West” of child support in the Commonwealth. What to do about children who are no longer minors, but who remain principally dependent upon one or more of their parents? This problem is particularly acute in cases where one or more of the adult children are full-time college students. Previously, a Payor could find himself paying a full Guideline Child Support Order and contributing to college tuition. The new Guidelines reduce the amount of child support in accordance with a new arithmetic formula and that arithmetic formula uses a different adjustment for children between 18 and 23 years of age.
Moreover, a formula has now been established for contributions towards college. This is the “UMass Amherst Formula”. This has been a formula that has been in practice in a number of Probate and Family Courts for years, but it has never been memorialized in either an Administrative Order and/or statute. Obviously, the Court can still exercise its discretion with regard to the amount of tuition and child support, but the new Guidelines and the task force, and more particularly the Trial Court, has made it clear that the Probate and Family Court Justices must consider these new mandates or make findings of fact that deviate from same.
Most practitioners use software to plug in the numbers in the Child Support Guideline Worksheet. You can still do this on the official MA State Guideline website. As far as a cell phone application, the Infinity Law Group has the most common app that practitioners use and that that same Group is in the process of coding a new app for the new Guideline Worksheet.
With these new guidelines, it is more important than ever to have a Massachusetts Attorney-At-Law that can help you understand these changes. Contact Keough + Sweeney at 617-574-0054 for help with your case and child support questions.
