Technically child support is based on the most up to date income and is easily determined by using your NOA each year. This works perfectly for people who don’t have changes in their incomes that are significant. The amounts regulate from year to year.
Where issues come in is where there are annual changes in income or custody. If the payor earns a lot in one year and then loses their job and wants to adjust down outside of the annual review, they need to review what they should have been paying and THEN adjust down.
There’s also an adjustment needed say if you adjust for the coming year and offset happens. The child should have been receiving the higher amount in the non offset situation. For instance, if the payor was paying based on a lower amount for the full table amount and it turns out they earned more in the year but will be adjusted down for offset. Example: the payor was paying on $50,000 in year 1 and was paying cs based on that in year 2. Year 2 income disclosure is $60,000 and is used for year 3 support which is offset. The payor SHOULD go back and determine what full support on that income for year 2 was and pay the arrears but use current income expected in year 3 for offset in year 3.
It’s only confusing for people who don’t want to pay and those who think they should get more cs when it’s not applicable.
