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Does a Father Legally Have to Pay Child Support?

If you are a parent who is going through a divorce or child custody case, then you are probably aware that there is an obligation for you in Texas to support your children from a financial perspective. This obligation stems from the duties that you owe to your child as a conservator. A conservator makes decisions and provides care for another person. When we talk about you being the conservator of your children that means you have rights and duties about them that you must exercise. That responsibility continues after a divorce or child custody case. The only difference between before and after her case is that you will have those rights and duties laid out for you on a piece of paper called child custody or divorce order.

Child support is one of the most contentious issues in a divorce or child custody case. While many people know that Child support is typically a part of a divorce or child custody case most do not know the details surrounding these payments. For example, you may be aware that child support payments occur monthly, but you might not know the specific amount, duration, or the expenses they cover. Did you know that after a case involving child support, custody, or divorce, one parent must now provide medical and dental support? These are the sort of questions that you will have to answer on behalf of your child in your custody or divorce case.

Texas Encourages Parental Agreement on Child Support Through Mediation

The state of Texas also encourages parents like you and your spouse to agree on the amount of child support. Most family law courts require mediation to ensure you and your co-parent negotiate with each other rather than solely relying on a family court judge to make a decision. Negotiation between the two of you usually leads to outcomes that are more equitable and beneficial for your child when compared to relying upon a family court judge. For that reason, you are better off negotiating and preparing for negotiations with your Co-parent rather than assuming your case will go to a trial.

It is also possible for the Child Support that you agree to with your spouse or Co-parent to be zero or close to zero. The Texas family code does not enforce a fixed amount for child support payments. True, there is a guideline amount of child support based on a set of factors in a mathematical equation. However, that is for anyone who chooses to utilize it. On the other hand, you can use any method you choose to pay child support as long as both of you agree to it, the judge deems it in the best interest of your child, and it is specified in your child support order.

Importance of Gathering Information for Structuring Child Support in Texas

The big thing at this point to mention is that collecting information is the best route that you can take in terms of determining how to structure child support in your circumstances. Rather than going into negotiations with little to no information, you can use blog posts like this one and any other source that you can get your hands on to negotiate child support. The more you know the better you will be able to negotiate in the better position you will be able to put your children in. Not understanding the basics about Texas child support means that you cannot tell whether your spouse is being unreasonable or reasonable with you.

We aim to make this blog post applicable to a broad audience. With that said, if you have questions about the material that we have covered in today’s blog post I recommend that you contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan. Our licensed family law attorneys offer free of charge consultations six days a week in person, over the phone, and via video. These consultations provide an excellent opportunity for you to learn more about Texas family law and understand how filing for divorce or child custody may affect your family circumstances.

What exactly is child support?

In a Texas divorce or child custody case it is usually the non-custodial or non-primary parent who ends up paying the other parent a certain sum of money every month. This sum of money supplements the contributions the other parent makes from their income to cover your child’s expenses and care for them during the month.

Despite the requirement for you and your co-parent to support your child, the Texas family code does not dictate a specific child support sum. Rather, the law in Texas provides you ample opportunity to negotiate for a certain amount of child support before a trial. If you are unable to conclude on the amount of child support to pay with your Co-parent then a family court judge will listen to testimony, consider other forms of evidence and make a decision about child support.

Meeting Basic Needs Amidst Household Changes

Child support does not aim to maintain your child’s previous lifestyle while you and your spouse or co-parent lived together. Adjustments may be necessary as your household income changes. Child support should cover your child’s basic needs, such as food, shelter, clothing, and education. Additionally, medical and dental insurance are now part of the essential expenses that child support should help with.

If your child is not going without any of these items, then your Co-parent who receives the Child Support can spend the Child Support on whatever he or she chooses. There is no accounting or oversight of the money once it leaves your bank account and goes to your Co-parents. As long as someone meets your child’s basic needs, your co-parent does not need to reveal how they spend the child support money. Thank you, of course, we hear about parents supposedly spending child support money on forever list things like clothes and jewelry but there are a couple of points here that I would like to make to you regarding that subject.

Dispelling Myths and Realities in Child Support

First off, child support is very rarely a humongous sum of money. We will briefly go over what child support ends up being for most families but for the most part, child support is a relatively modest amount of money. Therefore, the idea that your Co-parent will be pocketing this money for their benefit is probably not accurate. Rather, I have child support that you pay will likely go towards the direct expenses related to your child. At worst, you can expect Child Support or go to pay things like your child rent or other costs that may not directly relate to your child but are important to him or her. We can look to rent is typically code by your code in it it is still important to note that your child benefits from having a roof over his or her head.

This holds particularly true if you have a teenager or a child engaged in extracurricular activities. Consider the expenses associated with private school, daycare, tutoring, music lessons, braces, or other medical needs. In Texas, the average child support for one child often falls short of covering all expenses. Before becoming upset about sending money to your co-parent for such items, consider that they likely use the funds for these essential expenses.

Must it be the case for only one parent pays child support?

It is not necessarily true that only one parent must pay child support. Rather, it is possible for you and your Co-parent to both agree to pay child support until your child turns 18 or graduates from high school, whichever occurs later. The Child Support guidelines outlined in the Texas family code are a minimum and not a maximum standard of support that the state of Texas and a family court judge will presume is in your child’s best interest. Between you and your Co-parent, you all can figure out whatever method of child support payment works best for your family.

Tailoring Child Support to Your Family’s Unique Needs

You and your family may feel that an extra amount of child support is necessary each month, especially if your child has specific educational or medical needs that require regular payments. This underscores the importance of considering the unique circumstances of your family, as mentioned at the beginning of this blog post. You and your Co-parent, for example, may decide to have child support be the number that is the difference between what you would pay in child support and what your Co-parent would pay based on your incomes. Therefore, if your incomes are relatively close together the amount of child support you end up paying may be relatively small.

You have the freedom to choose the method of paying child support that works best for you. You may receive child support as an annuity, a property settlement, a lump sum, or through direct deductions from your paycheck by your employer. A family court judge signs a wage withholding order to implement this method after your case. You must get this done after your case because it is more difficult to complete this action once a case is over with.

Child Support Payments Must Go Through Attorney General’s Office

One important thing to note in this circumstance is that child support payments only count if you make those payments through the office of the attorney general. The Office of the Attorney General Child Support Division acts as a mediator between you and your co-parent, ensuring proper documentation of child support payments. Therefore, it is imperative that you make your payments in the method agreed to in your final decree of divorce or child custody orders.

If you choose to pay your child support in another method, such as directly to your Co-parent, you Did not get credit for these payments. These are known as informal child support payments and will not appear on the official payment ledger. This is important because if there is any discrepancy or disagreement in the future about child support then you will not get the benefit of the doubt on your child support installment page. Therefore, I recommend that you make payments to your co-parent through the office of the Attorney-general. To do any other way is a risk that you need not take that can come back to harm you.

What is medical support, and do you have to pay it as a part of child support?

Since 2018, Texas parents must provide medical support in addition to child support in divorce or child custody cases. This includes dental support. Both parents must ensure that the child has medical and dental coverage at a reasonable cost, regardless of who pays child support. Health insurance qualifies as reasonable when it does not exceed 9% of the parents’ annual resources for all children. If dent Insurance is not available to you had a reasonable cost of 1.5% of your annual resources, then it is not your responsibility of yours to necessarily pay.

Courts May Order Co-parent to Provide Medical and Dental Coverage

If the court deems the medical and dental support costs for your family unreasonable, it will order your co-parent to provide coverage at a reasonable cost, if available. The same calculation that applied to you will also apply to your co-parent. If neither of you has access to private health and dental insurance at a reasonable cost, then your co-parent would need to apply for benefits under government medical assistance programs, and the court will order you to pay cash medical support to your co-parent.

You and your co-parent will need to determine how to divide the costs associated with medical and dental care that insurance does not cover. Inevitably, there will be situations where health and dental insurance do not cover every expense for your child. This is the circumstance where the two of you will need to figure out how to divide those costs up between the two of you.

Considerations for Dividing Medical and Dental Costs in Divorce

You may choose to divide those costs according to your income where the person who earns more money will be responsible for bearing more of a burden of these uninsured costs. Other times you all may choose to simply split the costs down the middle to pay them in a 50/50 fashion. Regardless of your chosen option, it is advisable to define your expectations clearly in your court order. The last thing you want to do is to go through an entire divorce or child custody case and have it be unclear who has to pay for what regarding this important subject.

Navigating the division of medical care costs and determining who will pay for what in child support can be emotionally taxing and complicated. This is an important subject for you to get right and it can be extremely helpful to have someone by your side who has gone through the process with other people before. For that reason, I always recommend people who have children higher and experienced family law tended to help guide them in their case. While there are no surefire guarantees of success in a divorce or child custody case one method, I’ve seen work for many people is to hire an experienced family law attorney.

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Other Updated Articles you may be interested in:

  1. When can I stop paying child support in Texas
  2. Can you sign your rights away and not pay child support?
  3. How is Child Support Calculated in Texas
  4. A Look at Texas Child Support Orders
  5. How is Child Support Calculated in Texas?
  6. How Can a Failure to Pay Child Support Impact Your Vehicle Registration?
  7. What happens to child support if a parent dies?
  8. Can You Withhold Visitation if Your Ex Hasn’t Paid Child Support?
  9. What is considered child support?
  10. If you have primary custody (custodial parent), you can still be ordered to pay child support?
  11. How can a man get out of paying child support?
  12. Can I put limitations on how the child support I pay is used in Texas?
  13. Texas Child Support Review Process

Frequently Asked Questions About Child Support in Texas

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