Overnights and Child Support Payments
One of the biggest factors in what your amount of child support will be, other than gross income, is the number of overnights that you have in a year with the child. Overnights are the number of 12-hour (or more) days spent with your children. Your child support obligation is reduced in increments, relative to your number of overnights. If you hit 121 overnights a year you’ll get a shared parenting tax credit. Your obligation will again be reduced when starting at 121 overnights a year, going up to 50-50 times where your obligation again is reduced because you have significant time with the child therefore, you should not pay as much.
Now the issue often arises where people want more overnights with the child, really for the purpose of reducing their obligation. They may not actually even want the overnights. They may not be able to actually exercise the overnights due to distance from the other parent or work schedules. In other words, they’ll get the overnights on paper, with no intention of actually exercising them, thinking nobody will do anything about it.
Well, that’s wrong. There is a statute that allows the person receiving child support to file a motion to recoup that money.
Unused Overnights Can Lead to Recouped Child Support
If you’re paying child support and you don’t exercise a significant number of your overnights on which you received a reduction in child support, the party receiving can file a motion to go back and say, “This parent did not exercise a significant number of these overnights that he was supposed to have in order to get this reduction in child support” and obtain a judgment for the amount that they underpaid. They take the amount that you would’ve paid, had you not received that shared parenting credit, that reduction in child support, and you subtract that, or you subtract what you actually paid from that amount, you could obtain a judgment to recoup that.
That’s something to keep in mind. You really only want overnights that you can actually exercise, and that you think are in the best interest of the child, without self-interested motivations as to money.
Consultation with a Child Support Lawyer in Bartlesville
As with any child support issue, it’s important to consult an attorney. At least sit down for an hour. Child support can have longstanding implications and obligations so it needs to be correct.
For a confidential strategy consultation with a Bartlesville child support attorney, call Wirth Law Office – Bartlesville today at (918) 213-0950, or fill out the short form at the top right of this page. Regardless of how you contact us, a Bartlesville family lawyer will be in touch with you shortly.
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