The 50% Myth

My kids live 50% with me and 50% with the other parent.

Isn’t the law that there is no child support paid by either of us?

You guessed it; it’s a myth for most people. I say most as sometimes, in very narrow circumstances that is true. Child support is calculated by looking at the full table amount in the case of each person based upon their income. If their incomes are exactly the same (for example, they’re both government employees in the exact same wage category and never get overtime or a raise) and their child spends exactly 50% of the time with each parent, and there are no other children, and they each pay 50% of the special expenses for the child, then yes, it’s true. For most people their incomes are not the same, so child support is payable to the parent with the lower income. If the mom earns $60,000 per year and the dad earns $30,000 per year then you have to calculate the full table support for them each. Assuming there are no other expenses, the mom will owe the difference in the two support numbers to the dad in that case.