How much child support will I get in Oklahoma? How much child support will I pay in Oklahoma?
In Oklahoma, parents have a legal duty to support their children. Oklahoma has adopted the “income shares model”, which is based on the concept that the child should receive the same PR proportion of parental income that he or she would have received if the parents lived together. In an intact household, the income of both parents is generally pooled and spent for the benefit of all household members, including children.
Child support in Oklahoma is determined by the Child Support Guidelines, a spreadsheet that is published by the Department of Human Services and can be found here: http://www.okdhs.org/services/ocss/Pages/computation.aspx
To calculate the child support obligation, it is necessary to know the gross incomes of both parties, the monthly expenditures for child care, health insurance, and regular out of pocket medical expenses, the number of overnights the child will be spending with each parent
Gross income is a parent’s monthly income before taxes. Gross income also includes social security disability income, pension income, rental income, per diem pay, fringe benefits (company car, housing, etc.), basic housing allowance (military), hazard duty pay (military), and any other passive source of income. Gross income is very inclusive in Oklahoma. If a parent is not working, their income will be set at minimum wage ($1257.00/month), unless the Court determines their income should be set higher based on that parent’s education and experience. A Court can also “impute” income to a parent if they find the parent is willfully or voluntarily under or unemployed. The Court will carefully evaluate the employment history of the parent, education level and the parent’s lifestyle in making that determination.
For self-employed parents, gross income is all revenue minus reasonable and necessary expenses to produce that income. Tax treatment of expenses is not determinative. If you are self-employed, it will be necessary to show the Court how a given category of expenses is directly tied to your production of income.
For parents receiving social security disability, the monthly benefit amount is includable in gross income, as is the child’s benefit received by the disabled parent.
The number of overnights the non-custodial parent has the child affects the amount of support that parent must pay. If a parent has at least 121 overnights, the monthly child support obligation decreases significantly. If the non-custodial parent fails to exercise those overnights, it can be grounds for the custodial parent to modify the amount of child support.
Child care expenses and payment of health insurance premiums allow for a credit in child support to the parent paying the expense.