How is child support determined in Rhode Island (RI) in divorce cases, paternity cases, child support cases, and child visitation cases?<\/p>\n
In most cases, the support is determined by the “Child Support Formula and Guidelines of the Rhode Island Family Court.” In the vast majority of cases in Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Minimum Support Guidelines are used to determine child support.<\/p>\n
However, the parent has the right to ask for more minimum guidelines because the guidelines are supposed to be the minimum amount that the parent will receive as child support. In theory, the guideline is intended to be the floor rather than the ceiling for support. In fact, minimal guidelines are used in the vast majority of Rhode Island support cases. Article by RI child support attorney.<\/p>\n
The court is entitled to consider the assets of the party in determining child support. The family court can also look at the extraordinary expenses of either party and can look at the needs and expenses of the parties. The court can consider any circumstances the judge thinks appropriate in determining child support. If a person is unemployed or refuses to work when they are able to work, the court can determine the earning capacity of the party. Some judges consistently exceed minimum child support guidelines.<\/p>\n
Rhode Island’s guidelines use an income share model where the adjusted gross income of both parents is used to determine the correct amount of child support. Essentially, the guidelines look at the adjusted gross income of both parties. Adjusted gross income means the gross income of the party with some required deductions from gross income for medical and dental insurance. Another deduction required is for minor dependents (children). There are also some discretionary deductions that some judges may allow such as for life insurance costs.<\/p>\n
After determining the parties’ adjusted gross income, RI’s guidelines must be used to determine what the state of Rhode Island thinks parents with that amount of adjusted gross income would pay for support if the parents still lived together. After this number is determined, day care expenses are added to this amount.<\/p>\n
The non-custodial parent must be obligated in accordance with the Minimum Guidelines to pay a percentage of this amount shown above which is the same percentage of the persons adjusted gross income to the total adjusted gross income of both parties.<\/p>\n
For example: If Mom makes $1,000 a month and Dad makes $4,000 a month and they both make $200 in medical insurance payments, then the adjusted gross income for the mother is $800 and the adjusted gross income for the father is 3,800. The adjusted gross income for both is $4,600. The father earns 82.6 percent of gross income adjusted for limbs and is required to pay 82.6 percent of the minimum tawjihi amount plus day-care expenses.<\/p>\n
The next step is to obtain a copy of the latest version of the RI Guidelines. This can be obtained at RI Family Court or online.<\/p>\n
Assuming both parties have two children, the child support guidelines indicate that the correct child support amount is $956. Assuming no day care* in this assumption, the father would be obligated to pay 82.6 percent or $956 per month which would be $789.65 per month or $183 per week.<\/p>\n
*(If daycare is involved, add work-related childcare costs minus the federal tax credit. Please note that Rhode Island uses a general rule of approximately 75 percent to 80 percent of actual daycare expenses) According to the 2018 Child Support Guidelines, a noncustodial parent is also entitled to a deduction from their gross income for the amount they pay for daycare.<\/p>\n
Guidelines in theory and in most cases in practice are the minimum amount a person has to pay. The judge has the discretion to override the minimum guidelines if justified under the circumstances.<\/p>\n
The types of circumstances that may justify a judge issuing a support order over Rhode Island’s support guidelines are:<\/p>\n
a) Intrinsic assets<\/p>\n
b) A standard of living and expenses that far exceed the declared gross income<\/p>\n
c) Expenses and extraordinary needs related to the child<\/p>\n
If both parties agree to child support below the Rhode Island Support Guidelines, this will be allowed. These circumstances can include, visitation beyond the norm, extraordinary payments for child support or sometimes even upon agreement of the parties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
How is child support determined in Rhode Island (RI) in divorce cases, paternity cases, child support cases, and child visitation cases? In most cases, the support is determined by the “Child Support Formula and Guidelines of the Rhode Island Family Court.” In the vast majority of cases in Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Minimum Support …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-support"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogbuiz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogbuiz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogbuiz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogbuiz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogbuiz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogbuiz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogbuiz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogbuiz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogbuiz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogbuiz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}