Child Support

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Child support is designed to ensure that parents with parenting responsibilities have the financial means to provide the necessities for their children.  Minimum child support payments in Colorado are based on the number of children, the number of overnights they will be spending with each of the parents, the relative gross incomes of each of the parents (including maintenance payments), and specific costs borne by the parents  (such as health insurance or work related child care).

Because the minimum child support payment is largely based on the relative incomes, including maintenance payments, and child support is not taxable, whereas maintenance is taxable, there are tax saving opportunities if the parties choose to work together to minimize the amount of tax their two households are paying by adjusting the maintenance and child support figures.

The child support worksheet is a recommendation that the Court prefers to see parties use, but parties can deviate from it if they have good reason.

Child Support payments are generally payable until the children reach emancipation age, which is 19, or still in high school, or are mentally or physically disabled.  Child support is always modifiable based on changing incomes, etc.,  and requests to this effect will be considered by the Court so long as the change in support is greater than 10% (it can be less than 10% if the request is due to adding health insurance premiums or other health related factors).

Child support payments are normally protected through life insurance, so that if something happens to the payor, the recipient of the child support will still get support for the children. 

Child Support information and worksheets can be found on the Colorado Judicial web site.

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