Top 5 Ways to Manage Child Support Payments In California

California is a unique state in many ways. It has oceans, beaches, mountains, rivers, lakes – all within driving distance in most of the state. But California is also one of the states where child support payments and their calculations can differ – and do differ. Whether you’re paying child support in Los Angeles County or San Francisco county, there are some ways that you can help manage your payments, and they are right there in the legal code. Here are 5 ways you can manage child support payments in the Golden State.

1. Time – In California, the time you spend with your child is actually calculated in the amount of support you will have to pay. The more time you spend, the less money you will have to pay. In many cases, the courts or a neutral third party can decide on payment allocations based on weekly time spent with the child. Not that this is the best way to get a parent to spend time with a child, but time is important. And if money is tight, and the other parent agrees to it, then spending more time with your child is a win-win for everyone.
2. Tax Free Income Isn’t Free – For those collecting child support, many payers try to keep payments off the books. Because of this, it’s important that during calculations of income, that non-taxed income is included and written is as non-taxable.
3. Job expenses help- If you’re having to pay for work expenses, such as union dues, car payments, computers, etc, be sure to calculate them. It will help in making sure that you’re not actually overpaying in any capacity.
4. Child care add ons can add onto the support – While work is always a good thing, sometimes the pay of the job itself is too little, and can actually increase the amount of child support that is owed. In Los Angeles, for example, a livable wage is higher than that in somewhere more affordable, like Stockton. So if the mother has to take on a minimum or below wage contract work, this will mean more support, not less, due to child care add ons.
5. Pay on time – remember, the easiest way to manage child support payments is to pay on time. This is true not simply because it’s the right thing to do, but because fines, penalties, and wage garnishments mean that you will be paying more if you don’t. If you’re looking to manage your payments easily, SupportPay is the right app to do it. Our tool is easy to use and allows you to schedule, track and manage your payments in one dashboard. Whether in Los Angeles or Santa Clarita, SupportPay makes it easy.