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Recently, several new regulations and laws went into effect in North Carolina, including new rules regarding child support payments. According to WCNC, North Carolina’s General Assembly updates the state’s child support guidelines every four years, so these changes were expected.
The changes involve North Carolina’s child support guidelines and the formula used to update how much child support parents should pay. A few factors that North Carolina’s child support formula takes into account include:
- Both parents’ salaries
- Which parent pays for the children’s day care costs
- Which parent pays for the children’s health insurance
- How many overnights each parent has with the kids
The changes to child support payments in North Carolina that the General Assembly put into effect as of January 1 include the following:
- Stay-at-home parents caring for children under three years old are no longer permitted to put zero as their income. The court now can input the bare minimum wage as their income, even if they don’t make that much. This insures that stay-at-home parents have an income to include in the child support formula.
- If parents can come to a fair child support agreement on their own, the court will often abide by it. However, if parents cannot reach an agreement on their own, depending the family’s monthly income, the court may use North Carolina’s child support formula to decide what their child support payments will be. Prior to January 1, families who make $30,000 a month or less would automatically have the child support formula applied to their case if the parents could not reach a child support agreement on their own. However, under the new child support guidelines that went into effect on January 1, the income threshold for families to have the court automatically apply the child support formula to their situation if the parents can’t reach an agreement on their own has risen to $40,000 a month or less.
On average, these new child support guidelines are expected to increase child support payments by four percent. However, that only applies to child support agreements reached after the new guidelines went into effect. If parents want the new guidelines to apply to child support agreements reached prior to this year, one of the parents is going to have to request a modification from the court.
Schedule a Confidential Consultation with Our Experienced Child Support Attorneys in Charlotte Today
At Rech Law, P.C., our top priority is always doing what’s in the best interests of our clients and their children. Whether you’re the parent seeking child support or the one who pays it, our experienced family law attorneys in Charlotte can help you negotiate a child support arrangement that puts your children’s best interests first and works well for both parents as well.
To learn more about Rech Law, P.C., and how we’ve helped clients in the past, check out our clients’ testimonials.
Give us a call at (704) 659-0007 or contact us online today to set up a confidential consultation with our knowledgeable and skilled child support lawyers in Charlotte.