Georgia judges determine child support based primarily on children's reasonable needs, and the parents' combined income. Courts use the Child Support Guidelines to come up with a Basic Child Support Obligation (“BCSO”), which is the starting point for determining a final child support amount. However, there is a surprising amount of nuance in this calculation. For example, accurately reporting each parents' income may be a hurdle if one parent has a single member LLC or another parent works as a contractor. Not everyone is a standard w-2 employee and when income varies from month to month, it is important to have an attorney who has experience litigating in this area.
Moreover, the BCSO is just a starting point. The Court has the power to deviate for extraordinary educational or medical expenses, parenting time, high income earners, or any other plethora of factors. At the end of the day, Courts are concerned with the quality of life your children have and have quite a bit of wiggle room to ensure that your children are well taken care of in both parents' homes.
