California Divorce Law...

In considering ordering child support in an amount different from the guidelines, the court may consider the following factors:

• A parent's first obligation is to support his or her children.
• Both parents are responsible for their children.
• Each parent should be paying according to his or her ability.
• Children should share in the standard of living of their parents, so it is appropriate to increase the custodial household's standard of living in order to improve the lives of the children.
• Child support orders should reflect the fact that it costs more to have two homes.
• Child support orders should try to keep the child's standard of living in the two homes from being too different.
• The parents, not the state, should meet the children's needs as much as possible.
• It is assumed that whichever parent has primary physical custody is contributing a significant portion of resources for the support of the children.
• A goal is fair and non-litigated settlements between the parents.
• Only under special circumstances should child support be less than the guideline amount.
• If the sale of the home is deferred, and the rental value is more than the mortgage, insurance, and property taxes, then the spouse not living in the home should be entitled to some credit for the difference.
• If the paying parent has extraordinarily high income, the formula might result in an award that is more than the needs of the children.
• If a party is not contributing to the needs of the children at a level commensurate with that party's custodial time, an adjustment in the guideline result may be needed.
• If parents have different time-sharing relationships with different children, it may not be practical to use the formula.
• If the parents have approximately equal physical custody but very different percentages of income used for housing, the guidelines might not be appropriate to use.
• If children have special medical or other needs, the guideline formula might not be appropriate to use.

Sections 4053, 4057.

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