How Do I Increase My Tennessee Child Support? Part 2
How Do I Increase My Tennessee Child Support?
This is the second installment in our two-part series about increasing Tennessee child support for your family. In Part 1, we talked about the legal requirement of “significant variance” for child support modifications. In this Part 2, we will discuss 10 Steps to Modifying TN Child Support.
Remember that either parent may ask the court to modify child support orders. T.C.A. § 36-5-101. The basic steps are the same, whether the parent seeks a decrease or an increase in the monthly amount. Before getting started, though, you may want to queue up Tennessee’s Child Support Guidelines and read section .05 for specifics.
10 Steps to Modifying TN Child Support
The child support guidelines engender uniformity from one case to the next. But as helpful as they are in making orders predictable, they do not give parties step-by-step instructions for modification. To help parents prepare, here is a 10-step approach that follows the requirements set forth in the guidelines.
1. Gross Income. Make calculations using the Child Support Worksheet and include current information about gross income. Gross income includes: alimony, wages and salaries, fringe benefits, commissions and bonuses, unemployment and workers compensation, severance pay, tips, fees, interest on investments, pensions, trust income, dividends, lottery winnings and prizes, capital gains, gifts of cash and liquid instruments, and more.
2. Percentage of Change. Calculate the percentage of change in income from the current support order. As a baseline, at least a 15% change is necessary. However, if the alternate residential parent (ARP) is a low-income provider, then only a 7.5% change is required. (We talked about the requirement of significant variance in Part 1.)
3. Health Care Exception. Tennessee has a special health care exception that allows for support modification. This exception skirts the requirement of proving there is a significant variance. The court will consider modification for health care, so substantiate the child’s medical condition and the monthly increase needed.
4. Low-Income Provider. The low-income provider has an adjusted gross income at or below the federal poverty level, but is not voluntarily unemployed or underemployed. Determine whether the parent is a low-income provider because other rules apply, such as the 7.5% change discussed in Step 2.
5. Ignore Prior Deviations. When seeking modification, use the Child Support Worksheet to provide a written comparison between: a) the existing order without deviations; and b) the proposed order. The current order may include a court-determined deviation from the guidelines. Such deviations are not considered.
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6. Intentional Support Arrears. If the ARP is seeking modification, but is intentionally behind with payments, then that parent is probably already in violation of a court order. The ARP’s deliberate arrearage will bar, or prohibit, modification of the current order.
7. Number of Children. The number of children being supported by the ARP is one important basis for modification. There may be child care adjustments and parenting time changes that serve as a basis for modification as well. Whichever it is, the parent must still satisfy Step 2’s significant variance requirement.
8. Split-Parenting Special Correction. This only affects those orders dated between January 18, 2005, and April 1, 2005. If a child support order (or modified order) was issued for spouses sharing 50/50 parenting time, then modification to correct errors is allowable without the necessity of proving significant variance. This provision in the guidelines also affects ARPs who are in arrears with support.
9. Modification Date. Determine the earliest date that a court’s modified child support order could take effect. Because such orders cannot be modified retroactively, the earliest possible effective date will be the day the opposing party was properly served with court papers.
And lastly, there’s the…
10. Parent Hardship Exception. This exception deals with requests to modify support when the initial order came under the earlier flat percentage guidelines (child support orders issued on January 17, 2005, or earlier). If modification would create a true financial hardship for either parent due to a substantial increase or decrease in amount, then the court may deviate from the guidelines.
To determine whether circumstances are such that modification of child support, upward or downwards, is needed for your family, consider seeking representation from a knowledgeable child support lawyer.
Memphis, Tenn., Child Support Lawyer
For more information, see Modifying Tennessee Child Support, and for legal updates, news, analysis, and commentary, visit our Tennessee Family Law Blog and its Child Support category. A Memphis child support attorney from the Miles Mason Family Law Group can help you with Tennessee child support issues, including setting or modifying child support. To schedule your confidential consultation, call us today at (901) 683-1850.
