In Texas, the calculation of support arrears, interest and consolidated judgment balances is made more complex because payments in excess of the current monthly support obligation are applied in a specific order (an order that was changed for payments received after 2010).

Inclusion of a new consolidated judgment category allows the automatic calculation of arrears, interest and consolidated judgment balances regardless of when the payment was received.

Specify how frequently you want your work to be saved. The idea is to protect your work from loss due to a power outage, inadvertence or computer mishap, so start with a fairly short interval — say 3 minutes. You won’t notice any interruption in your work, and you’ll never be more than 3 minutes away from your latest changes.

The new Guidelines change the Equal Parenting Time formula, and abolish the mandatory 20% parenting time adjustment for equal time sharing without expense sharing (substituting a surcharge of 13% to18% for the non-expense sharing equal time parent). The new Guidelines also implement new support schedules (which generally increase support levels), and reject both termination of employment for misconduct and incarceration as grounds for modification of child support.

In other changes, the new Guidelines create a standard for the apportionment of birth expenses (setting a discretionary cap of 5% of a parent’s gross annual income); add “extraordinary expenses” like private school, premier sports, and instruction in the arts as “special needs” expenses which can be apportioned between the parents as additional child support.

On the enforcement side, the new Guidelines empower the Court to assess financial penalties against a parent who fails to voluntarily disclose a material change in financial circumstances (including income, work-related child care costs, and health insurance premiums).

Bradley Software customers who have subscribed to our 2012 Kansas Family Law Suite (which includes our Kansas Child Support Calculator) will receive updated software fully complying with the new Administrative order later this spring at no cost.

The Kansas Court of Appeals, in a non-published decision issued March 26, 2010, affirmed the ruling of Judge David W. Hauber, Division 7, Johnson County District Court assessing interest of $493 on a maintenance arrearage of $4,933. Noteworthy are the facts that 1) the trial judge had rejected Wife’s calculation of interest as “not correct” and 2) the rate applied was a flat 10%, not 10% per annum (or an equivalent monthly rate over the months the arrears were outstanding). Interesting as well is the fact that the Wife had only sought an interest award of $199.89!  In re Marriage of Lee-Guiher-White, 227 P.3d 1010(Kan.App.2010, No. 102,167)

Several days ago, our support department asked me to respond to an inquiry from one of our subscribers regarding the calculation of the Self-Employment tax deduction from a parent’s income. It seems that an opposing attorney had challenged our software’s calculation as being inaccurate in that it did not agree with his own manual calculation.  I responded that the Bradley Software child support calculators apply the same criteria set forth by the IRS in 1040 form SE.

The Self-employed individual’s gross income from self-employment (as entered by the user) is first reduced by the reasonable business expenses (as entered by the user). The resulting net income from self-employment is then multiplied by 92.35% (100% less 7.65% – the portion remaining after the deduction of a wage earner’s share of the FICA and Medicare taxes – to obtain the portion of the net SE income subject to SE tax, per IRS regulations). The taxable portion is then multiplied by 12.4% (on the first $106,800) for the FICA (or Social Security) tax, and 2.9% (on all SE taxable net income) for the Medicare tax. Note: the rates and limits are those applicable during 2011; 2012 rates have not yet been finally determined by Congress. The resulting SE tax is then multiplied by 0.5 to arrive at the one-half deductible in computing the parent’s SE income for child support.

The error made by most individuals when trying to “check” the SE tax calculation is failing to multiply the net SE income (after deduction of reasonable business expenses) by 92.35% to arrive at the portion of the SE net income subject to the SE tax.

After twenty years of development of our software, we are confident that the “bugs” have been worked out (i.e., found and corrected), but we’re always willing to test that conclusion, and we welcome our subscriber’s inquiries and suggestions. Thank you for the opportunity.

Unlike the “less than $40,000 income” calculator previously provided on the KLS site, www.ChildSupportTools.com includes the Multiple Family Adjustment, Parenting Time Adjustment, Extended Income Table, and “cloud storage of data” capability.

The CST tool provides the same calculation tools included in our professional Bradley Child Support Calculator for Kansas, but for a single family, and for a limited period of time (which can be extended).

The pricing is modest and dependent on the length of access desired. The family data is available for future access (using then current updated guidelines) if it is desired to revisit the support issue at a later date (perhaps in a few years, or when income or other material changes occur).

CST is also available to attorneys who only have an occasional support case and don’t have a professional support calculator.