What Are My Options When I Have to Pay Child Support to More Than One Ex?

 Posted on June 13,2022 in Child Support

Once you divorce or separate from your child’s other parent, you will probably want to move on and establish a relationship with someone new. Especially for younger people, remarriages and new relationships are often accompanied by new children. While your children with a second or even third partner can be a joyful and enriching part of your life, children are expensive and this is doubly true if you get divorced or separated again and must now make more than one child support payment. 

When faced with this situation, even the most generous and responsible parents will likely have fears and anxieties about being able to afford to support their children and themselves. Worries about falling behind on child support are common, especially because unpaid child support carries serious consequences. 

What Is the Maximum Child Support Amount I Have to Pay? 

No matter how many children you are paying for, Texas law limits the monthly net income for which a parent has to pay child support. As of the writing of this blog, the child support net income cap is set at $9200 a month. Any money over that does not need to be considered for child support payments unless a child’s needs justify it. 

If you are making payments to one person, your payments will be determined as a percentage of your income based on the number of children for whom you are making payments. For example, child support for one child is typically set at 20 percent of your net income, while child support for three children is set at 30 percent of your net income. 

These percentages are adjusted if payments must be made to more than one parent. The court determines how much a parent must pay in child support to additional households using the following formula: 

• First, calculate how much child support a parent would pay for all the children if they lived in the same household. For example, if a father earned a net income of $5000 and had five children, he would pay 40 percent of his income, or $2000, in child support for all his children. 
• Next, divide this number ($2000) by the number of children not present for the current calculations. So, if a father has three of his five children from a previous marriage and the court is making calculations for the two children present, the court would divide $2000 by five and multiply that by three. That equals $1200. 
• Finally, the court would subtract that $1200 from the father’s net income and then base the new child support payments on the adjusted net income. So the two children in the present calculation would receive 25 percent of the father’s adjusted net income, or $950 per month. 

It is important to remember that these guidelines are not set in stone and may be adjusted according to your children’s needs. 

Schedule a Free Consultation with a Frisco, TX Child Support Lawyer

While you may firmly believe in managing your financial responsibility for your children, drowning in endless payments benefits them and it can damage your long-term financial stability. If you are paying child support to more than one ex and you need help making payments reasonable, call a Collin County child support attorney with the The Law Office of Linda Risinger. 

Source: 

https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/FA/htm/FA.154.htm