Legal Question in Family Law in California

Re: Child Support and marriage

"Household" income is not used in the calculation of child support, except as it affects the take home pay of the parent of the child. In other words, when you get married, his income tax status changes from single to married filing jointly. Your income is added to his to determine the tax bracket. That tax bracket is used to calculate his takehome pay. If you are also working, generally that places him in a higher tax bracket and his child support would actually go down. If you are not working, he is placed in a lower tax bracket and his takehome pay goes up and he pays more income tax. Those are generalizations only. Most of the time it works backward from what people expect. In either event it makes a change but generally does not cause a great difference. Good Luck, Pat McCrary