Determining the income of the parents is an important step in determining child support. When child support services or a court needs to figure the income of each parent, there are several ways in which to do so. If you have concerns that the other parent may not fully disclose his or her income, then it may help put your mind at ease about that.
You and the other parent will need to report your income, but this is not the only place where income information comes from. According to the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, child support services or the court will also get information from the National Directory of New Hires and the Washington State Employment Security Department, among other sources.
If there is no actual and current information, then calculations come from a few different sources. It depends on whether you and the other parent have a job at the time. They may use your current earnings at full time hours or your prior earnings at full time hours. They may also use earnings at the historical rate of pay.
If you or the other parent are a recent graduate of high school or still in high school, on public assistance or any type of disability or recently released from prison, then the court or child support services may use minimum wage to calculate earnings. One last option if none of the other options work for your situation is to use the median net monthly income for the state.
To calculate child support payments, it is essential that the court or child support services has proper income for you and the other parent. Not reporting income or trying to cover up income by either parent will not work.
