A Way to Walk a Mile in a Noncustodial Parent's Moccasins
A tribute to a hero, my father. He was always my ally.
Some practical advice for support contemnors in the State of Washington.
I should have done this a long time ago. At least I am doing it right now. There is an EASY way to at least pretend to walk a mile in our moccasins. If you do this, you will have a better understanding of what we noncustodial parents are going through and a better understanding of how we feel about things. There is a saying that one can never judge a man unless he has walked a mile in his moccasins.
The first thing you can do is go to the Web Site for the State of Washington's appellate courts:
When you get there, you can click on the link to Court Forms, which is
When you get to this page, you will see a list of links contained in a number of boxes. In the box labeled "Introduction and General Information" you will find a link labeled "List of All forms". Click it. It brings you to:
www.courts.wa.gov/forms/?fa=forms.list
All sorts of standardized forms for legal pleadings in the state courts of Washington are listed here. Notice how most of them are for anti-harassment orders and for family law. Scroll down and you will very quickly see three forms for Child Support. First, you can click "CS Schedule", it brings you to:
www.courts.wa.gov/forms/?fa=forms.formdisp&filename=CSSchedule&category_list=19
Select your preference for PDF or Word 6.0 and download to your hard drive. You can also print out several copies. When you work through all of the gobbledygook used to justify the thing originally created by former Seattle University Economics Professor Peter Nickerson, you come to the Economic Table. It works a lot like the Tax Table included in your IRS Booklet (starting at page 51 of this on-line pdf version) you got along with with your income tax 1040 forms. The CS Schedule's Economic Table is actually the current version of RCW 26.19.020.
But of course, you also need the "CS Worksheet", which is:
www.courts.wa.gov/forms/?fa=forms.formdisp&filename=CSWorksheet&category_list=19
Again select your preference for PDF (they warn of a long download for you Adobe Acrobat fans) or Word 6.0 and download to your hard drive. Do print out several copies. You might need to buy some paper and replace your toner cartridge when you are done! Well not actually that bad, the Child Support Worksheet is only six pages long.
I will hereby cut through the gobbledygook and give the short version of the instructions:
First, you figure your after tax income. That is what you have left in your paycheck after the tax withholding. You then figure your spouse's after tax income.
Say your take home $2,000 and your spouse takes home $1,000 each month. That is $3,000 per month in combined take home income. How many kids? Are they all under 12? Lets say you have three children and they are all under 12 years old. You go to the Support Schedule and look for the combined income of $3,000. According to it, your Basic Child Support Obligation is, TA-TA!, $364 per month per child!
That's not so bad. Well, wait a minute! There's three children, that is $364 X 3 = $1,092 per month in total child support obligation. Hey, if they are over 12 years old, it is $449 per child per month, or $1,347 per month in total Basic Child Support Obligation.
But, you might say, to console yourself, this is based on a combined income of $3,000 per month, surely you don't have to pay ALL of that!
Well, that is true enough. Your $2,000 per month is about 2/3 of the total take home pay upon which the Basic Child Support Obligation is calculated, you get 2/3 of that obligation as your responsibility.
Therefore, if you lose custody of all three children, your support order, without deviation up or down, will be 2/3 of $1,092 per month which is $686 per month, 2/3 of $1,347 per month which is $898 per month if they are over 12.
Now as the spouse gets custody of the children, you don't, does that mean she or he has to account for how she spends all of your money for the benefit of the children? To God, maybe, if he or she believes in Him. Maybe the angels at the Pearly Gates will quiz him or her on that. But, incredible as this may seem, the law and the courts will not hold him or her to such account. Many a noncustodial has complained about his or her money being misspent, but hey, just because the noncustodial parent is PAYING for the rearing of his or her child, the LOSS OF CUSTODY MEANS HE HAS NO SAY IN THE REARING OF HIS CHILD!!! Even when the custodial parent is hauled off to the Department of Corrections for spending the child support money on illegal drugs, the noncustodial parent often does not get custody as the remaining fit parent.
Considering that the purpose of this exercise is to walk a mile in our moccasins, it is "cheating" if your presume you can win a deviation downward.
Now that you calculated what your support order would be if you lost custody of all of your children in a divorce, would you like to calculate your federal income tax? First the FICA tax is 7.65% of the first $87,000 you earn in gross wages and 1.45% on all your earnings above $87,000 each year. Of course, if you are earning that much, again, you are defeating the purpose of this exercise, which is to walk a mile in our moccasins. Noncustodial parents with that level of income do not have their licenses suspended and are not thrown in jail.
Unless they LOSE that income, which, incidentally, CAN HAPPEN AND DOES HAPPEN!
That FICA tax is assessed on your entire gross income regardless of what you spend the money on, including child support.
Ahh, but with income taxes you can take all sorts of deductions from your taxable income! Right?
Well, not if you are the noncustodial parent. We all know what happens in divorce:
The spouse gets the gold mine you get the shaft. After all, if the spouse is going to have the children, he or she needs the house! There goes the mortgage interest deduction!
Personal exemptions for the children? Goes to the custodial parent unless he or she signs a piece of paper granting you, the noncustodial parent, those exemptions. Even if the STATE court ordered her or him to sign such a FEDERAL document, that person can string you along with false promises and hints (Oh, don't worry, I'll get that to you). If on April 14 you are told: "No I'm not giving you that, I took the personal exemptions and I've already filed my tax return!" there is as much you can do about that as you can about the clouds dropping rain! On April 16, the state court will most likely dismiss any motion for contempt because of futility. On April 16, the custodial parent CANNOT assign the personal exemptions over to the noncustodial parent for the previous year in time for a timely filing of the income tax return.
So no personal exemptions for the children. You only get the personal exemption for yourself.
But I am paying 2/3 of the Child Support Obligation! You might scream.
So.
That has not mattered since President Reagan signed something called a Deficit Reduction Act back in 1984. And no, it did not reduce the deficit.
Yeah, I admired him too. Then I found out about this.
But if you are the noncustodial parent, all of the politicians you supported because of your political preferences, WHATEVER your political preferences, will seriously disappoint you, when you find out their participation is passing the odious legislation and establishing the odious apparatus detailed on the Enemies Page and the State Enemies of Freedom pages listed thereon.
So you go ahead and prepare your 1040 Form. You might as well use the simpler 1040A Form or even the 1040EZ Form. Even though you are paying a shitload of money in child support, you cannot claim them as dependents! I personally recommend the 1040A or the regular 1040 anyway, you will be using the slash mark or "N/A" a lot on the line items that just do not apply to you.
You just list your gross income. That is all of the money you earned and cost your employer in wages, before all of the deductions for FICA tax, income tax, and child support. You take the personal exemption for yourself. That is ONE personal exemption, $3,050 in 2003. You take the Standard Deduction, $4,750 in 2003.
YOU DON'T DEDUCT ANY AMOUNT FROM YOUR TAXABLE INCOME FOR CHILD SUPPORT PAID!!
What do you think this is? Alimony?
Then you go to the tax table and calculate your tax.
Now to complete this exercise in pretending to walk a mile in our moccasins, you do one final mathematical calculation:
Gross Income - FICA tax - Income Tax - (12 X Child Support Obligation) = What the state and federal governments deem, by legislation, to be reasonable for you to live on when you are the noncustodial parent!
Next time you want to criticize "deadbeat dads" please perform this exercise.
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