Louisiana Divorce Child Support

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Louisiana, like other states in the USA, has its own statute pertaining to family laws. This statute includes provisions for property distribution, alimony, child custody, visitation rights and child support. Child support is the monetary contribution made by the non-custodial parent to the custodial parent, following a divorce. This amount is used in upbringing the child. Louisiana divorce child support guidelines are mentioned in Chapter 9 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes. Family courts follow these guidelines while ordering a child maintenance in this state.

Every parent should be aware of his/her child maintenance rights and duties. To help such parents, some relevant information is provided here.

How is Paternity established?

As per the law in this state, if a child is born out of marriage, then the father is not accountable for child support payments. Only after paternity has been established, the father has this responsibility. Paternity can be established by availing one of the following two methods:

• Court proceedings
• Affidavit of acknowledgment

Calculation of Louisiana Divorce Child Support

The support amount is calculated in a specific way that is given here:

• The following amounts are subtracted from the gross income of the non-custodial parent:
  • Any spousal support paid
  • Child subsidy amount in any pre-existing court order
• The Federal tax credit for child care is subtracted from the net child care expenses due to job search or employment. The figure so obtained is added to the basic obligation.
• Let us assume that one of the parents carries health insurance for the child under consideration. The value of this coverage is added to the basic child support obligation.
• The extraordinary expenditures of the child like schooling or special or medical requirements are dealt with by some provisions. These are developed by order of the court or an agreement between the parents.

Louisiana Child Support Guidelines in brief

The table below is prepared according to the Regular Session of the 2008 Louisiana Legislature. All values are in USD.

Pertinent points regarding the Child Support Order according to Schedule in R.S. 9:315.14

• Let us assume that the non-domiciliary parent is given an obligation of child support that is equal to or more than half of the total child maintenance obligation. This parent can be eligible for the state and federal tax dependency deductions, if the judge confirms the following two points after a contradictory motion:
  • The obligor has not accrued any arrears
  • If the non-domiciliary parent is given the right to claim the dependency deductions, then this parent would be considerably at profit without substantially hampering the domiciliary parent. If there are multiple children, then a part of the deductions is claimed by the non-domiciliary parent.
• According to the Schedule in R.S. 9:315.13 the order for child support consists of the following information:
  • The years during which this parent is eligible to claim these deductions
  • The domiciliary parent must produce the relevant forms demanded by the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) in a timely manner. This would authorize the non-domiciliary parent to claim these deductions.

Child Support Deductions- Whether the income of the child leads to deductions?

• The income of the child may decrease the fundamental requirements of the child. Such income is regarded as a deduction that needs to be subtracted from the basic obligation of child subsidy.
• However, the above statements are not applicable if the child is a full time student, irrespective of whether the income was earned during a holiday break or summer vacation.

Enforcement of Louisiana Divorce Child Support

SES (Support Enforcement Services) observes the following methods of enforcement:

• Denial of passport
• Contempt of court hearings
• Motor vehicle registration suspension
• Suspension of various licenses - fishing, hunting, drivers, professional and occupational licenses
• Interception of lottery winnings
• Interception of federal and state tax refunds
• Income assignment - This method accounts for more than 65 percent of the money collected every year

A non-custodial parent is free from support obligations when his/her child turns 18. If the child is 18 years old and studying in high school, you have to continue paying the support until the child graduates from high school or turns 19, whichever occurs first.

You must take all information regarding Louisiana divorce child support so that you can fulfill your responsibilities in a manner that is legal. Otherwise you have to go through the enforcement measures.

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