Parenting Expense Adjustment to Child Support

The current Minnesota child support law factors into its calculations the fact that the child support obligor incurs expenses when caring for the child(ren).  The child support statute provides a parenting expense adjustment in which the basic support calculated based upon the income of the two parents is reduced by twelve percent (12%).  The adjustment applies to all cases except those in which the payor parent has (a) very little access to the child, or (b) access to the child that is nearly equal to the other parent.  As long as the child spends between ten percent (10%) and forty-five percent (45%) of time with the payor parent, the 12% reduction applies. (As an example, a non-custodial parent who has parenting time one day per week, or alternating weekends, meets the 10% threshold.)  The applicable parenting schedule must be in a written court order in order for the parenting expenses adjustment to be implemented.

If the payor parent has the child(ren) in his or her care for more than 45% of the time, a very different calculation of child support applies.  In these cases, the custodial arrangement is commonly termed "joint physical custody," because the child spends substantial residential time in each home.  In those cases, generally the child support obligation is substantially less than it would otherwise be.  However, in such circumstances, it is expected that the payor parent will contribute directly to other expenses of the child(ren), such as clothing and extracurricular activities. Such a living arrangement for the child(ren) would reflect that the parties have the ability to cooperate in co-parenting, and therefore to also cooperate in fairly incurring and allocating the parenting expenses.