All the divorce laws are wrong.

Just kidding. However, since our Chair, Katie King, put up a constructive and positive blog post, I will try to be the antithesis this year as the Vice Chair. To that end, there’s a bunch of stuff we deal with on a daily basis that is problematic. This year is a good opportunity for me to vent and point out 10 of those little things (one per month or so) that drive me crazy about how things should be better. Perhaps there’s nothing groundbreaking, and if that’s the case, it should be easier to fix!

The bonus (pun intended) to this is I want to hear your thoughts on why I’m wrong. After reading this, you can click here to send me your comments and change my mind.

Let’s get started with something easy: child support and bonuses. Here’s how many negotiations in child support might go when bonus and commission are involved:

Dad’s Attorney:

We need to incorporate the bonus amount in calculating child support.

Mom’s attorney:

No way! Unfair! My client only gets paid bonuses once per year, and they aren’t guaranteed! We need to do a percentage!

Dad’s Attorney:

Fine. The Guidelines say “When income is received on an irregular, non-recurring, or one-time basis, the court may . . . require an obligor to pay as child support a percentage of his or her non-recurring income that is equivalent to the percentage of his or her recurring income paid for child support.”

Mom’s Attorney:

OK. Mom’s obligation is $500/month with mom paying all day care and health insurance. Her gross base income is $10,000/month. We’ll pay 5% of net bonus.

Dad’s Attorney:

It’s gross, not net! That’s what the Guidelines say! 5% gross!

Mom’s Attorney:

Deal! (laughing all the way to the bank)

You’ll say: “Ketan, I don’t see what’s wrong with this.”

I say: This provision is dumb. It creates a wide opening to cheat someone out of child support, and it creates more confusion instead of more certainty.

Let’s take a quick look at why I’m right. Take these facts:

Mom makes $10,000 per month (gross).

Dad makes $5,000 per month (gross).

Childcare is $1,600 per month.

There are $0.00 in health insurance costs.

If mom pays childcare, child support is roughly $500/month. Here’s where mom “wins,” because then, per the Guidelines, it’s only 5%.

But, if Dad pays childcare, then child support is $2,100 per month. This is 21% of the bonus as “child support.” Dad wins!

Why have the laws of North Carolina allowed for such a huge range of outcomes when the point is to bring certainty when it comes to child support? Baffling, or lack of understanding on how the Guidelines actually work. For an easy to use spreadsheet to figure out child support with these numbers, go here: http://www.nclawattorneys.com/resources.

This bonus thing is even more confusing in the “Worksheet B” context. Take the same numbers above. If mom pays childcare, then dad owes mom child support, which means mom owes $0.00 of her bonus and dad actually owes mom some “undefined” percentage of child support. Where dad pays the childcare, the bonus payout becomes 14.5%.

There’s an easy solution. Everyone pays to the other parent 10% of any gross bonus or commission. Change my mind by clicking here.

September 1, 2021/by FamilyLaw