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Does the TN court take into account my new family in lowering my support??

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anthony505

Junior Member
What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Tennessee

I pay over $400 in support to my son plus medical ins. ( including half of all co-pays, prescriptions and deductable), and plan tickets each time he visits me during the year. I do not get to deduct him on my taxes, she does, even though she does not work. I have him all summer long , but still pay her child support during these 2.5 months. Now that my wife and I are having a baby it is getting harder to make all these payments. I want to continue to seeing him regularly. Does the court take into account my new family in deciding to lower child support?? I also have 2 step-daughters that I support. There father refuses to pay his support. Even if i cant get it lowered, would the court perhaps give me the tax credit, or have her pay half of the plane tickets. My family and I need some relief.

Anthony505
 


Mbarr

Member
anthony505 said:
Does the court take into account my new family in deciding to lower child support??
No.

I also have 2 step-daughters that I support. There father refuses to pay his support.
This has nothing to do with your cs obligation. Your 1st obligation is to your own, firstborn, child.

Even if i cant get it lowered, would the court perhaps give me the tax credit, or have her pay half of the plane tickets. My family and I need some relief.

Tax credit - unlikely
1/2 of travel expenses - possibly, if she was the one who created the distance. If you are the one who moved, you're probably out of luck.
The court expects that you would take into account your prior obligation to support your 1st born son before having more children.
 

nextwife

Senior Member
And since you are filing for a modification, it is very reasonable for a NCP to alternate years of getting the deduction. ESPECIALLY if the CP is not working and cannot benefit from it. So you may wish to address that as well.

Also, if it was NOT you that created the distance that makes plane tickets necessary, you might ask to share in the travel expense (if it was she who moved away).
 

Mbarr

Member
stealth2 said:
Actually, TN CAN take into account other children for whom the payor is legally responsible and actually supporting (scroll down to the section on Modification): http://www.state.tn.us/sos/rules/1240/1240-02/1240-02-04.pdf

So the new baby can be taken into account, but the stepkids likely will not be, since OP is not LEGALLY responsible for them.
My interpretation of "legally responsible and actually supporting" is that they are referring to children for whom there exists an ORDER to pay support. Notice also the and/or language and % of variance in cs.

If someone knows TN case law on this issue, I'd be interested in reading it. I'm surprised that TN is that much more progressive than AL (re parenting plans and cs calculations). AL and our sister states, FL and LA appear to be far behind the times.
 

Whyte Noise

Senior Member
Having another child is included in the language of "legally responsible and actually supporting". Don't let my name mislead you, I've lived in Tenessee for over a year now. :)

(Which reminds me, I need to see about changing my name on here.)

Having a subsequent child AFTER a court order is issued for CS of a prior child doesn't absolve you of the legal resonsibility of actually supporting that subsequent child. If the child is in the home of the NCP, then he most certainly IS supporting that child as well, even though there is no court order. If he's that child's father (and it's inferred that he is) then he is legally responsible for supporting that child. Both requirement thresholds are met under the statutory language. If I were to have another child, as her/his mother it IS my legal responsibility to support that child, and since s/he would be living in my home it is automatically assumed that I am doing just that. See what I mean?

As for the OP's other questions, No. Stepchildren more than likely won't be taken into account in the CS calculation. As for the transportation expenses, if SHE created the distance you may have something to work with... depending on how long it's been this way. As for the tax credit, it's becoming fairly standard for the parents to alternate the deduction in an odd/even year manner.
 

Whyte Noise

Senior Member
Mbarr said:
I'm surprised that TN is that much more progressive than AL (re parenting plans and cs calculations). AL and our sister states, FL and LA appear to be far behind the times.
Actually, Tennessee just recently redid their child support calculation guidelines. :)
 

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