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Supreme Court Revises Child Support Guidelines

Effective January 1, 2004, the Indiana Supreme Court adopted revisions to the Indiana Child Support Guidelines that apply in all dissolution of marriage, legal separation, paternity cases, and child support actions filed after January 1, 2004, as well as any actions to modify support after that date.

The most significant change to the Guidelines is the introduction of a “shared parenting time credit” which replaces the “visitation credit” in previous support awards.  The new credit is calculated using the number of overnights a child is in the non-custodial parent’s home.  The credit is not automatic, but if it is not given, the child support order must contain reasons why not.  For example, a deviation might be appropriate if the application of the credit will jeopardize a parent’s ability to support the children.  The parenting time credit begins at 52 overnights per year.  If the parenting time is for fewer overnights, the court may consider granting the non-custodial parent an appropriate credit, but does not have to do so. If a credit is given, the order must list the specific reasons for it.

If the Indiana Parenting Time Guidelines are used, the non-custodial parent will be exercising between 96 and 100 overnights.  Under the previous version of the Support Guidelines, a parent paying support was usually given a 10% deviation from the base support calculation.  Under the new Guidelines, the deviation may be much greater.  If the non-custodial parent does not exercise the parenting time used to determine the credit, he or she may be subject to a reduction or loss of credit or financial restitution.  It will be important to document the actual overnight parenting time exercised by each parent.  If disputes arise, there is no substitute for documentation prepared when an event is taking place.  Sometimes the log itself can resolve a dispute arising from a person’s memory lapse.

For modification of child support actions, it is not enough to show that the new revisions would result in a change in the amount of child support.  It is also necessary to prove that there is a substantial and continuing change in circumstances that makes the existing child support order unreasonable or that the amount of support ordered at least twelve months earlier differs from the new Guideline amount by more than twenty percent.