Listen, admittedly I added the word “funky” to the title of this post to inject some life into the topic of child support modification. Because frankly, as hard as I believe that it could be true, some people apparently do not get too jazzed up (see what I did there?) about reading about family law in Tennessee. My goal moving forward is to make my family law blog as informative AND entertaining as possible, and to keep you, the reader, interested. That being said, let’s talk about the fascinating and energetic topic of child support modifications in Tennessee.
As stated here in a previous blog, child support in Tennessee is primarily based on two factors: 1) the number of parenting days each parent spends individually with the child, and 2) the incomes of the parties. The determination of how to calculate the number of parenting days each parent is to be credited each month and how to calculate monthly gross income is provided in the Tennessee Child Support Guidelines, the governing rules for child support in Tennessee. Child support will be set initially either upon the divorce of parties with children or upon the filing of a Petition to Set Child Support by an unmarried party. Once child support is initially set, a “significant variance” is required to modify that order and a party must file a Petition to Modify Child Support. But what is this mysterious “significant variance?”
A significant variance is defined differently in the Child Support Guidelines depending on whether the original order was entered before January 18, 2005 or after said date. For all orders entered after January 18, 2005, a significant variance is defined as at least a 15% change between the amount of the current support order and the amount of the proposed presumptive support order. However, if the parent seeking modification qualifies as a low-income provider as defined by the guidelines (makes less than $10,400 per year and is not willfully and voluntarily unemployed or underemployed when working at his/her full capacity according to his/her education and experience), then only a 7.5% variance is required.
For modification of orders entered prior to January 18, 2005, the 15% variance in the proposed and current orders will qualify as a significant variance for modification purposes. Other qualifications for a significant variance for these older orders include a 15% change in the gross income of the alternate residential parent (ARP), and/or a change in the number of children the ARP is legally responsible for and is supporting, and/or a child supported by the order has become disabled, and/or the parties voluntarily entered an agreed order to modify support in accordance with the guidelines.
As you can glean from reading this article, child support modifications for more recent orders typically take place when there is a change in either the parenting schedule, providing one parent with more or less parenting time, or when there is a change in the incomes of the parties. However, that change in income must not be voluntary, such as a parent choosing not to work or choosing to take a job that pays far less in order to reduce child support. A future post will describe how the Court will determine if a party is willfully and voluntarily unemployed or underemployed and, if so, how that will impact child support calculations.
Ryan C. Smith's Tennessee Family Law Blog 