Will the court order child support if we have the children half the time?
It is common for one party to pay child support, even if he or she has the children for a significant amount of the time. To calculate child support in Wisconsin in a shared placement situation (where each parent has the children for at least 25% of the time — at least 92 overnights per year), the court looks at the gross income of each parent and the number of overnights each child spends with each parent.
A child support calculator for shared placement cases can be found on the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families website (requires Microsoft Excel).
Special rules govern the application of the percentage standards to the following different types of payers:
- A serial family payer (a payer with an existing child support obligation who incurs an additional child support obligation in a subsequent family)
- A split-custody payer (a payer who has physical placement of at least one but not all the children)
- High income payers (earning more than $7,000 per month)
- Low income payers (earning less than $1,350 per month)
See the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families website for more tools and calculators to use in determining child support, or call 715.843.6700 to speak to one of our professionals.
