Child Support Addendum

OK . . . you are really going to be bold and try to do this all on your own . . .
Good luck.

Many attorney still don't know how to calculate child support after years of practicing.
(So why do I keep saying "get a lawyer" you may ask . . . lol.)

I should say, get a good family law attorney.  I might even post a few links to some I would recommend one of these days.

ANYWAY . . . start with THIS LINK to the Georgia child support website and download the excel calculator.  Stay away from the pen and paper version, and let Excel do the calculating.  Seriously, you are asking for headaches and rejected paperwork if you don't let Excel do the work here.  PS.  The worksheet with the extra data collection papers may look enticing, but personally I can't stand them.  Don't use the crutches, get in there and do the real deal.

SO . . .
Landmines that you will have to avoid:
1)  not doing the presumptive child support calculation correctly
    (a) enter monthly incomes into schedule "A"
    (b) enter medical expenses for children's covered health care into Schedule "D"
    (c) enter day care costs associated with work into Schedule "D"
2) thinking you can just agree to an amount and ignore the calculation process
3) trying to use Schedule "E" to deviate without explaining why the deviation is in the best interests of the child.
4) trying to use low income deviations without knowing the statutory minimums
  (i.e.  100 dollars for the first child, and 50 for each additional child)
5) trying to use "parenting time" deviations without knowing that the law behind this deviation was changed in 2007 when Georgia switched to the "income shares" model.   See Hamlin v. Ramey, 291 Ga. App. 222 (2008) 

OH . .. . BTW . . .

If you are self employed, have other children already on child support, have non-parent custodian, have a split parenting plan (mom gets one child, dad gets the other) or any of the hundreds of dozens of other variations possible in this whole mess, you better dig into OCGA 19-6-15 pretty deep, as you got some studying to do.

The good thing is, Schedule "C" is intentionally left blank for now.
The bad thing is, the powers that be put in Schedule "C" and intentionally left it blank for future changes.




RETURN to LIST OF REQUIRED DOCUMENTS