The Child Support Agency has an online child support calculator that makes it relatively simple to ascertain exactly how much child support you should be paying.
Log on to www.csa.gov.au and follow the links to the relevant “child support estimator”.
The assessment primarily relates to each party's income, how much time the children spend with each party, and the annually indexed table of the costs associated with raising children.
You can then use this knowledge to negotiate a private Child Support Agreement. Such an Agreement can be a “win-win” for both parties as:
- The paying parent knows exactly where they stand and is free to progress financially without worrying about the Child Support Agency meddling in their affairs.
- The receiving parent has certainty in knowing that regular payments will be made throughout the agreed period without worrying about the paying parent restructuring their income in order to pay less child support.
Parents can enter into a Child Support Agreement that is binding for up to three years without lawyers need to sign off on the Agreement. For an Agreement longer than three years, lawyers will need to sign off on it.
So, speak to your family lawyer about the pros and cons of entering into a private Child Support Agreement to establish whether this is a good idea for you in your particular circumstances.
