FAQs

Question (Florida specific): Why does child support go up when I increase the non-custodial parent's overnights?

Answer: When you increase the noncustodial parent's overnights, you would expect child support to go down.

But in Florida, the reverse can happen: child support can go up with an increase in non-custodial overnights..

Here's why:

When you switch to substantial shared custody at 73 overnights per year, the child support base goes up by 50%. At the same time, the payer's share of the base goes down.

So the payer is responsible for a smaller percentage of a larger number.

Sometimes, the decrease in the payer's percentage is not enough to offset the increase in the base, so the payer's net payment increases.

This is most likely to happen when:

• The payer's share of combined income is very high (that is, the payer earns much more than the recipient); and


• The number of overnights is just over the threshold for switching to substantial shared parenting (so the payer's reduction due to overnights is minimized).