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Wyoming
Child Support Laws
Wyoming Child Support Guide :: Table of Contents
What Is Child Support?
Child support is an ongoing payment by a non-custodial parent to assist with the financial support of their children. Child support payments are often determined during the process of dissolution of a marriage through divorce, though the only requirements for requesting child support payments are establishment of paternity and maternity.
Child support is handled on a state level, and Wyoming has a set of specific child support guidelines. On this page you can learn about how child support is calculated in Wyoming, how custody split and extraordinary costs affect child support payments, and more.
Wyoming Child Support Court Considerations Table
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Wyoming Child Support Law Summary
Wyoming uses both "percentage of income" and "income share" methods for calculating child support payments.
Wyoming's child support formula directly accounts for parents who share custody of a child, and support payment amounts are connected to the custody split. Other special situations accounted for under Wyoming's child support law include childcare costs and extraordinary medical costs. These costs may be additions to the basic Wyoming child support order.
In determining whether to deviate from the child support guidelines established by W.S. 20-2-304, the court will consider the following factors:
- The child's age
- costs of necessary day care
- the child's special health care/educational needs
- responsibilities for the support of other children (court ordered or otherwise)
- The value of services/contribution by either parent
- Any expenses related to the mother's pregnancy/confinement for the child, if the parents never married or if the parents were divorced before the birth of the child
- costs of transportation for the child to/from their visitation
- The ability of the parents to provide health, dental and vision insurance through their employment benefits
- The amount of time the child spends with each parent
- other necessary expenses for the child
- if either parent is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed
The noncustodial parent's share of the joint child support obligation is paid to the custodial parent through the clerk of court
If the combined income of the custodial parent and the noncustodial parent is less than $833.00, the support obligation of the noncustodial parent will be 25% of net income, but the support obligation will not be less than $50 per month for each family unit where there are children that the noncustodial parent owes support.
The court will require in the support order:
- That one or both parents provides insurance coverage for the children if insurance can be obtained at a reasonable cost and the benefits under the insurance policy are accessible to the children
- That both parents be liable to pay any medical expenses not covered by insurance and any deductible amount on the required insurance coverage as cash medical support
- A specified proportion that each parent will be liable for any medical expenses as cash medical support, which can include dental, optical or other health care expenses incurred by any person/agency on behalf of a child if the expenses are not covered by insurance.
Wyoming Child Support Calculation Formula Methods
Child support can be arranged out of court by a mutual support agreement between the parents, or can be decided in Wyoming family court through a child support order. In Wyoming, a number of factors are taken into account when determining the amount of child support to be paid in court. Here is an explanation of the two most common methods used to calculate basic child support amounts.
Income Share Method
Under the income share model, the court uses economic tables to estimate the total monthly cost of raising the children. The non-custodial parent pays a percentage of the calculated cost that is based on their proportional share of both parents' combined income.
Example: The non-custodial parent of one child has an income of $2,000 per month, and the custodial parent has an income of $1,000 per month. The court estimates that the cost of raising one child is $1,000 a month. The non-custodial parent's income is 66.6% of the parent's total combined income. Therefore, the non-custodial parent pays $666 per month in child support, or 66.6% of the total child support obligation.
Percentage Of Income Method
This method of calculating child support is simple - a set percentage of the non-custodial parent's income is paid monthly to the custodial parent to cover basic child support expenses. The percentage paid may stay the same, or vary if the non-custodial parent's income changes.
Example: The non-custodial parent of one child has an income of $2,000 per month. The court orders a flat percentage of 25% of the non-custodial parent's income to be paid in child support to the custodial parent. Therefore, the non-custodial parent pays $500 per month in child support. If the non-custodial parent's monthly income changes, the dollar amount they pay in child support will change as well.
Wyoming Child Support Frequently Asked Questions
Wyoming Child Support FAQ
- How does having shared custody of the child affect child support in Wyoming?
- How are extraordinary medical costs treated by child support in Wyoming?
- How are child care costs treated by child support in Wyoming?
- Does child support cover college education expenses in Wyoming?
- How is child support enforced in Wyoming?
- What are child support arrears?
- How are child support payments taxed in Wyoming?
How does having shared custody of the child affect child support in Wyoming?
All states have a method of modifying the amount of child support owed in cases where the custody agreement provides for joint or shared custody of a child between both parents.
Wyoming law accounts for shared custody of a child directly in the child support formula used to calculate payment amounts. This means that, in cases where custody is shared, the amount of child support paid by the paying parent will be reduced according to the amount of time they have custody of the child.
How are extraordinary medical costs treated by child support in Wyoming?
Wyoming has specialized guidelines for the sharing of a child's extraordinary medical care costs that are separate from, and in addition to, basic child support payments. Extraordinary medical costs are generally costs generated by things such as illness, hospital visits, or costly procedures such as getting braces.
Wyoming treats extraordinary medical care costs as a "deviation factor", which means that the judge determining the amount of child support to be paid may take ongoing medical care costs into account when calculating the monthly amount to be paid. This means that in situations where the custodial parent needs to pay child care costs, the judge may raise the child support payments in order to help cover them.
How are child care costs treated by child support in Wyoming?
Due to the high costs of child care for a single payment, Wyoming has specialized guidelines that consider child care costs separately from the general costs of raising a child for the purposes of calculating child support payments.
Wyoming treats child care costs as a "deviation factor", which means that the judge determining the amount of child support to be paid may take child care costs into account when calculating the monthly amount to be paid. This means that in situations where the custodial parent needs to pay child care costs, the judge may raise the child support payments in order to help cover them.
Does child support cover college education expenses in Wyoming?
While the state of Wyoming has no explicit requirement for college expenses to be covered under child support, support for college expense by the non-custodial parent may be voluntarily agreed to by both parties, after which it is contractually enforceable.
How is child support enforced in Wyoming?
In the state of Wyoming, child support is enforced by the state child support agency. The state agency handles the location of non-custodial parents, enforcement of support orders, and the handling of unpaid child support arrears.
What are child support arrears?
Child support arrears are the amount of child support that is delinquent, or unpaid, by the noncustodial parent to the custodial parent. Child support arrears may be collected by the state through wage garnishment, bank levy. withholding of Wyoming welfare benefits, or other collection methods.
How are child support payments taxed in Wyoming?
Under IRS guidelines, the recepient of child support does not need to pay federal tax on child support payments, and the payer of child support cannot deduct their child support payments. This differs from the federal taxation of alimony payments, which are treated as taxable income by the receiver and are deductible by the payor. Wyoming tax law may vary on tax treatment of child support.