Houston Child Support Lawyer – Texas Laws

Child Support Attorney in Houston

Texas Child Support Payment Laws

How To Get Court Ordered Child Support

state of texas child support payment lawsTo speak to our Houston Child Support Lawyers, contact the Longworth Law Firm now. In Texas the parent without primary possession pays child support and has visitation rights. The parent paying child support is called the obligor” and the one receiving the child support amounts on behalf of the child is called the “obligee”.

The obligee is the parent that has primary possession of the child, which simply means that that parent gets to choose the primary residence of the child. Since the obligee lives with the child, the obligee incurs more living expenses than the other parent. For that reason, a court has to come up with a child support amount that will make both parents share equal financial responsibility over the child. Your net income serves as the main determinant of the amount you have to pay as child support.

Calculating The Amount You Pay For Child Support

The amounts you pay for child support are determined by child support guidelines. To calculate your net income the court first has to calculate gross income on an annual basis. Then the court will divide the annual gross income with 12 (as in 12 months) to get the monthly net resources. The net resources are the total of all the income you derive in a month including the income you derive from your assets. The net resources are then multiplied with a certain percentage to get the total amount you have to pay for child support in a month.

If your net monthly income is less than $7,500, the court will consider the number of children in your household when calculating the amount you have to pay. For one child 20% of the Net income will be paid as child support and for two children it will be 25% of the income. You continue adding 5% for every other additional child in the household that is included in the suit. 

For people who earn a net income more than $7,500 a month, the court will apply the same calculations used for people earning a net income less than $7,500 a month. However, you may be asked to pay more child support if the obligee convinces the court that the child needs warrant more support.  Some needs that may require more support include:

  • Tutoring
  • Extra medical expenses
  • Extracurricular activities and more

There is a limit to the amount that can be paid every month as child support. Apart from that, the percentage you have to pay for children included in the suit will be reduced if there are other children you are paying child support for. These could be children born outside the marriage or children from another marriage. 

The Duration Of Child Support

The obligor pays child support until the child reaches age 18 years.  You can also stop paying child support for the following reasons:

  • If the child is emancipated
  • When the child’s disability gets removed
  • When the child dies
  • When the child gets married

For children with a disability that cannot be removed, you may have to pay child support for an indefinite period. 

Houston Child Attorney – FAQ

If you have a specific child support question, then you may want to call one of our family law attorneys in Houston. Additionally, we have included several more child support articles below:

  1. Are there child support lawyers for fathers in Houston, Texas who over pay child support payments?
  2. Do I have to pay “back child support” in Texas?
  3. Who pays child support when my spouse and I have joint custody?
  4. My child is going to college, what happens to the child support payments?
  5. How does RETROACTIVE CHILD SUPPORT work in Texas Family Law?
  6. How much is a child support lawyer?