How do other children living in the home impact the amount of child support?

Many parents have children from either newer or prior marriages living in their home in addition to the children at issue in their divorce or modification case. Child support is largely based on the relative incomes of both parents. The court may consider the presence of any “qualified children” living in a parent's home for the purpose of reducing that parent's gross income when determining child support for the joint children of the parties. O.C.G.A. § 19-6-15(f)(1)(C).

What is a “qualified child”? To be considered “qualified” for the purpose of lowering the parent’s income, there are four requirements: (1) the parent seeking the lowered income must be legally responsible for the child and the child must reside with them; (2) the parent must actually be supporting that child; (3) the child is not subject to a preexisting order (in other words, no one else is paying child support for the child); and (4) the child cannot be the subject of the case currently before the court to set, modify, or enforce support child support. Stepchildren and other minors in the home that the parent has no legal obligation to support are not "qualified children" for purposes of the statute.

If there is a qualified child in the home, their parent must present documentary evidence of the parent-child relationship to the court. The court will then consider whether to grant a reduction in income for purposes of calculating child support for the child for whom child support is being awarded based on the surrounding circumstances such as whether it would be a “substantial hardship to the parent”: not to reduce their income and whether such an adjustment is in best interest of the child for whom child support is being awarded.
If the court, in its discretion, decides to apply the qualified child adjustment, the basic child support obligation for such parent shall be multiplied by 75 percent and the resulting amount shall be subtracted from such parent's monthly gross income. Needless to say, child support calculations can get quite complex. An experienced family law attorney is your best bet to help you predict what your child support amount may be.

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