Child support payments ensure that children receive the financial resources they deserve to have a healthy, stable, and supported childhood, regardless of whether their parents live together. Child support covers the cost of essential items like food, housing, clothing, medical care, education, and childcare, and allows children to maintain a standard of living similar to what they would have had if both parents continued to live in the same household.

Calculating child support obligations in Maryland can be complex, particularly when one or both parents have children from another relationship. The goal of the Maryland Child Support Guidelines is fairness and predictability for all families, recognizing that parents have a continuing duty to support all their children, even when those children are not part of the current child support case.

A recently passed Maryland law allows the court, using a predictable framework, to adjust a parent’s income to account for the financial responsibility of caring for other dependents. (The law already accounted for adjustments for preexisting child support orders for other children.) This ensures child support is calculated realistically and reflects both parents’ ability to contribute financially to the upbringing of their children, while protecting the financial needs of every child the parent is responsible for supporting.

How Is Child Support Calculated in Maryland?

Child support obligations are calculated with the Maryland Child Support Guidelines, using a standardized “income-shares” formula to determine the amount of child support owed. The Guidelines consider parental income, the number of shared minor children, and other factors such as alimony payments, health insurance costs, and extraordinary medical expenses. However, until the new law was passed, Maryland courts did not have a standardized way to consider how to account for parents having a legal duty to support additional children who are not subject to a child support order.

Courts typically apply the following methodology to calculate child support:

• Determine each parent’s actual income, which includes wages, salaries, bonuses, self-employment income, rent, pensions, and other sources
• Subtract allowable deductions, including alimony or spousal support that was actually paid and any preexisting child support obligations for children who are not subject to the case
• Add alimony actually received, whether in this case or from another source
• Combine both parents’ adjusted actual income and apply the Maryland Child Support Schedule
• Factor in the number of child overnights with each parent if 92 or more per year (shared physical custody), to to account for the child custody arrangement
• Divide the support obligation proportionally to each parent’s share of the combined income, accounting for overnights if 92+ per year
• Add each parent’s share of child-related expenses: work-related childcare expenses, health insurance premiums for the children, extraordinary (out of pocket) medical expenses, child’s travel expense for parenting time (if travel required), certain educational expenses
• Apply credits and adjustments, including a self-support reserve and (now, with the new law) a deduction for preexisting support obligations for other children living in the household

What If a Parent Has Other Children Who Are Not Subject to a Child Support Order?

Maryland’s new Multi-Family Adjustment Law standardizes how courts calculate child support when a parent owes a duty of support to other children but there is no child support order. The new law changes the definition of “adjusted actual income” by allowing a parent to deduct from their actual income a support allowance for each child living in the parents’ home and to whom the parent owes a legal duty of support but who is not subject to a child support order.

Until now, the law allowed the Court to adjust support in these situations, but did not provide a consistent way of doing so. That left the Court to decide whether to “deviate” (so, grant a different amount of support than the Guidelines) on a case-by-case basis. Deviation is a more time-consuming, less predictable way of determining child support.

Under the new law, after calculating each parent’s adjusted actual income, a parent may receive a support credit for “children not subject to the support proceeding.” The court includes a theoretical child support amount for those other children as if support were being calculated under the guidelines and adjusts the parent’s income accordingly. Effectively, the court calculates what the parent would pay as if a child support order existed for the other child(ren) and treats that as a deduction for purposes of calculating child support under the order. This is not a dollar-for-dollar deduction; instead, the basic support obligation for additional children is determined according to the guidelines and multiplied by 75%.

By applying this formula, the new law is expected to help families, the Court, the Office of Child Support Enforcement, and family law attorneys by making child support calculations in these situations more predictable and efficient.

Helping You Navigate Complex Multi-Family Dynamics

Parenting during and after a divorce can be difficult, and navigating multi-family dynamics poses unique challenges. Balancing time, attention, and financial resources means making tough choices. Each child deserves love, stability, and support, and most parents want nothing more than to do right by their children.

If you have children from more than one relationship or believe your current child support order does not reflect your financial situation, working with an experienced child support lawyer is invaluable. While Maryland’s new Multi-Family Adjustment Law provides much-needed predictability in calculating Maryland child support obligations, parents who are impacted will need to petition the court to request a modification to their child support order. Maryland family law attorney Lindsay Parvis can help ensure each child’s needs are met while protecting your financial stability and legal rights.

Contact Maryland Family Law Attorney Lindsay Parvis Today

Lindsay Parvis has over 20 years of experience representing clients in complex family matters throughout Maryland. Contact us today to schedule an appointment to discuss your situation and how we can assist you.