In Pennsylvania, child support is determined by the Child Support Guidelines established by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Federal law requires each state to adopt guidelines to be uniformally applied throughout the state. Pennsylvania’s guidelines are based upon the net incomes of the parties. While there are limited circumstances under which the courts can deviate from the guideline amounts, from a practical standpoint, the guidelines are pretty rigidly applied. Thus, once the net incomes of the parties are known, an attorney can generally get a reasonably accurate handle on what the courts would award as child support. The difficulty in this area, if there is any, is determining the net income. What most people think of as their “take home” pay is not what the support law uses for net income. Deductions from gross income to reach net income are limited to actual taxes owed on the income (not necessarily what one has withheld from each pay check) necessary and legitimate business expenses (generally applicable when dealing with a business owner rather than a salaried employee) and mandatory pension contributions (many government pensions are mandatory, virtually all private pensions are voluntary and therefore not deductible from gross income). While it is generally fairly easy to determine net income for a salaried employee, even highly paid individuals, it can sometimes be quite complex to determine the net income of a business owner. All types of income are considered including interest, dividends, rental income, lottery winnings, etc.
Once net income is determined, it is a relatively straightforward matter of plugging mother’s and father’s incomes into the guideline formula and determining the basic child support award for the number of children involved.
Until recently there was a means of checks and balances in determining child support in very high income situations (when the net incomes of the parties exceed a combined total of $30,000 per month). Recent changes in the support guidelines are now intended to apply to all income levels even if the actual needs of the child are far less than the guideline amount.
To some extent, the amount of child support is dependent upon the amount of the custody time that the payor parent enjoys with the children. If that parent has more than 40% custody, child support will be reduced on a sliding scale up until the obligor has equal 50/50 custody time. Sometimes this reductions can be substantial. A common misconception is that parties who share custody equally do not owe any child support. This is true only when the parties share custody equally and the parties net incomes are also fairly equal. Otherwise, the higher earning spouse will pay child support to the lesser earning spouse, albeit at a somewhat reduced level because of the adjustment for having custody more than 40% of the time. In determining the amount of custody a parent has, Pennsylvania law counts overnights only .
For tax treatment of child support see the article on Taxability of Support Orders.