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Welcome Dean,

We reside in IL.  My husband's Ex wants to move to NY from MI.  The current jurisdiction is MI for child custody/support.  We're fighting move to NY but that's another story.

What happens down the road with regards to child support?  Would my husband's Ex have any success getting it moved to NY if she's allowed to permanently move there?

Naturally, we're concerned about which state is in our favor with regards to the child support calculation.  New York pays child support until 21 y.o. so that might be a huge motivator for his Ex to fight to move it to NY.

Also, is there a web site that you're aware of that compares the differences in the child support calculations between the various states so that we can do some research?

clothing is covered under the child support, generally speaking:

"What does child support cover?

The term "child support" covers all the economic necessities of life required by a child. These necessities include, but are not limited to, food, clothing, shelter, education, medical care, and other day-to-day expenses."

Tuition is up for grabs, you've already set a precedent for paying for it so if she takes you to court, the judge may order you to continue.

I would keep it out of the court.  Next time you get a raise, have your employer withhold the max on your paycheck which means you're paying her 25% of your net check.  You'll get the money back when you file your taxes.  Consider it forced savings.

The 25% you're paying is the same rate that the court would charge you with BUT...here's the difference.  You're paying her 25% of your net right?  But you control your net meaning you can tell your employer to take out the IRS rate for withholding or you can increase the amount withheld to as much as you need...then your Ex gets 25% of that amount...right?

The courts would figure your 25% differently on the net.  What the courts would do is assign an income tax amount based on their guidelines so chances are, the tax amount according to the court would be less of deduction than you're doing on your paycheck or your get for your taxes so you'll wind up paying her more in child support.

Will they take my income into consideration now that we are married?

--no, the stepparents income is generally not included in the calculation, this works on both side of the fence.  if mom married a millionaire, you would not pay less for it.

Will they take into consideration DH has our child to support as well as DD now?

--most states reduce your salary by x% for any new children for the noncustodial parent.  in michigan, 10% comes off my DH's salary and they figure the child support on the reduced income.

Will they take into consideration that DD's health insurance is through DH (BM doesn't carry it on her), actually it's through my health insurance which allows me to carry step-kids?

--is there any out of pocket on your premiums?  many states give you some sort of income reduction for that amount.  is your premium calculated per participant?  get a letter from your human resources person at work confirming the child on your health insurance and the amount of your out of pocket contributed to that child.  if it's a base amount, ask the HR person to divide that amount by the number of people on the plan if it's not per participant.

Will they take into consideration that we pay rent for a home big enough for DD to have her own bedroom and she also has her own wardrobe and toys at our house (and always has)?

--nope

Is it worth trying for?

in most states, the date you file for a reduction would be considered the date for a retroactive abatement.  this means you continue to pay the amount under your court order.  when the court modifies the amount, they calculate the arrearage from the date you filed as the difference between the new and old amount.

now the issue is, how does your state handle an arrearage?  in Michigan, you have to pay the current month and the next month in full and then you get your arrearage.  we had a court order put in to reduce our new obligation by "X" amount per month until the arrearage was paid off.

you can ask to have her salary inputed as if she was working

but I will tell you to not get your hopes up, many states don't really factor in the custodial parents income and if it does, it's at such an insignificant amount.

for example, we're in Michigan and if we doubled the mom's salary from $40K/year to $80K/year, her child support was only reduced by $80/mo.

so there you go.

file for a reduction right away, based on unemployment.  when he gets a job, refile based on current pay rate.  it'll show good faith.  you could also consult with a HR consultant who can write up on his industry and the market and supply a report to be used for the CS calculation, if it goes to trial.

we filed and got a 35% reduction.  problem was the industry, my husband's a doctor a his malpractice TRIPLED in two years.  of course, the BM fought it, said he should be making more.  all we did at trial was produce the malpractice bills to show the trend and the judge agreed this was out of our control and ordered the reduction.

if you're paying child support, why are you also paying for his clothes and other stuff?  that's what child support is for.

do you make more money than your Ex?  if you do, you could still owe CS because your CS would enable your child to live at the same standard of living at both homes.

go to the child support office where you pay and ask them for the policy regarding child support overpayment.  

in michigan, if you prepay a month in advance, they'll return the advance money (up to the arrearage balance) to you.  that's how you can get it back.  they will not just give you the money because they don't have YOUR money, they pay YOUR money right out to the mom.  you need to give them advanced child support to get it returned to you.  the month they return the money to you, mom gets nothing that month, you get "her" payment.  get it?

we went thru the court as part of our trial and offered the mom $200/mo.  it was generous because she knew otherwise, she wouldn't be seeing child support for 4 months.

are you saying you never have to pay child support ever again?  go straight to the horse's mouth and ask the child support agency about getting your money back.  whatever they tell you in person, ask for a copy of it in writing.

we're $4000 overpaid in Michigan

if we prepaid the current month and subsequent month, we'd get the subsequent month back in full, that's the guideliness for MI

we put in a court order to have our monthly obligation reduced by $200/mo

been in your shoes, got a Tshirt for our efforts.

sounds like your state got a new system or an enhancement to their system.  the arrearage letter or status of arrearage was pretty typical for us when we were behind.  

it just happens to have been issued the same time as he got his bonus.  relax, you're almost done, the light is at the end of the tunnel.