Posted on April 08, 2019 in Child Support

Sweeping changes to the way Illinois courts will calculate child support are set to take effect July 1, 2017. Most people paying or receiving child support aren’t even aware of the first massive change to Illinois child support law in over 25 years, and in fact, many attorneys are similarly unaware of the new calculation methods.

For years Illinois has used a "percentage guideline" approach to the calculation of child support. This percentage guideline approach has simply taken a statutory multiplier (20% in situations where one child is to receive support) and applied it to the payor’s net income to reach a child support amount. For instance, a payor with $2,000 of net income was required to pay a $400 child support obligation for one child.

Effective July 1, 2017, Illinois will employ an "income shares" approach to the calculation of child support, and each party will have a specific, statutory amount of child support for which he or she is legally responsible. Although the new rules provide that the parent with the majority amount of parenting time with the children will not actually pay the statutorily determined support amount, the effect of establishing that parent’s child support obligation is a reduction in the amount of child support he or she will receive from the parent with less parenting time.

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 Posted on April 08, 2019 in Child Support

Effective January 1, 2018, Illinois changed the number of cases subject to the statutory maintenance guidelines and the method for calculating maintenance in all pending divorce cases and for all divorces filed after January 1, 2018. Public Act 100-520, effective January 1, increased the combined income of divorcing individuals that would be subject to the statutory maintenance guidelines from $250,000 per couple to $500,000 per couple.

Read the rest of the article here: https://www.bestlawyers.com/article/new-year-ushers-in-new-formulas-for-calculating-maintenance-payments-in-divorce-proceedings/1839

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