People come to a child support hearing ready to argue about fairness. The judge is looking at a form. Wyoming's statute says that "no order establishing or modifying a child support obligation shall be entered unless financial affidavits on a form approved by the Wyoming supreme court which fully discloses the financial status of the parties have been filed," or the court has held a hearing and taken testimony. In practice that means the Confidential Financial Affidavit, one from each parent, sworn, with documents attached. The support number comes out of those two forms and a table. If you want to influence the number, the form is where you do it.
What the form asks for
The affidavit is a disclosure of income, deductions and expenses. The statute requires "suitable documentation of current earnings," and it gives examples: "pay stubs, employer statements, or receipts and expenses if self-employed," supplemented with "copies of the most recent tax return." The Judicial Branch packet asks for two years of returns and the latest pay stubs. The affidavit goes into a confidential file at the clerk's office, not the public record, which is the one piece of a divorce file the public cannot pull.
It is separate from the initial disclosures the civil rules require in a divorce, which are exchanged between the parties and not filed. The affidavit is filed, because the court cannot act without it.
Income, and then net income
The statute's definition of income is broad on purpose: "any form of payment or return in money or in kind to an individual, regardless of source." Wages, salary, commissions, independent-contractor pay, disability, unemployment, retirement, annuities. Payment in kind counts, which matters in a valley where housing is part of a lot of jobs. Overtime is the exception: it is left out unless the court looks at the last twenty-four months and finds that it "can reasonably be expected to continue on a consistent basis." Means-tested benefits are excluded. For a self-employed parent, "all reasonable unreimbursed legitimate business expenses shall be deducted," which is not the same as taking the bottom line of a Schedule C after depreciation, and that gap is where a business owner's support case is usually fought.
Net income is income less personal income taxes, Social Security, the cost of the children's health coverage, support actually being paid under earlier orders for other children, and mandatory pension deductions. Payments on child support arrears do not come off. The calculator on the state child support program's website wants net figures, not gross, and most people feed it the wrong one.
The table
Add the two net incomes together, find the row in the table for the number of children, and the statute gives a base amount plus a percentage of everything above the row. For one child, combined net income of $8,000 a month produces $1,379. At $15,000 it is $2,157 plus 10.3 percent of anything over $15,000. Two children at $15,000 is $3,171 plus 15.3 percent of the excess. There is no top row; the marginal percentage runs on. That total is then divided between the parents in proportion to their net incomes, and the noncustodial parent pays his or her share.
A worked example. One parent nets $5,000 and the other $3,000. Combined, $8,000, one child, $1,379. The higher earner's share is 62.5 percent, or about $862 a month, if the other parent has primary custody.
Shared custody changes the arithmetic. When each parent has the child overnight for more than a quarter of the year, ninety-two or more nights, and both "contribute substantially to the expenses of the children" beyond support, the table amount is multiplied by 150 percent, each parent's share is computed, each share is multiplied by the other parent's percentage of overnights, and the parent owing more pays the difference. In the example above, with the higher earner at 146 overnights, the payment falls from about $862 to about $465. That is why overnight counts get litigated in Teton County with a calendar and a highlighter.
The presumption, and how a court leaves it
The table amount is "rebuttably presumed to be the correct amount." Every order has to state the presumptive figure and say whether it departs from it. A court may deviate only "upon a specific finding that the application of the presumptive child support would be unjust or inappropriate," with the reasons written into the order, and the statute lists what it may consider: the child's age, the cost of necessary day care, special health and educational needs, the other children either parent supports, the cost of transporting the child for visitation, which parent can furnish insurance through work, the time the child spends with each parent, and whether a parent is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed. In that last case support is computed on imputed income, and the statute tells the court to look at work history, education, the availability of jobs the parent is qualified for, local wage rates and whether the parent "is realistically able to earn imputed income."
There is no separate high-income factor. A parent who wants a deviation because the table produces a large number makes the argument under the catch-all factors and the "unjust or inappropriate" standard, with evidence of what the child's needs actually cost. And there is a price for asking: if the parties do not agree on the presumptive amount, the court may order the party seeking to deviate to pay the other side's attorney fees unless it ends up deviating.
Agreements are not exempt. A stipulated support amount has to be accompanied by the affidavits, the court checks it against the presumption, and if it departs the parties have to explain why.
What comes with the order
Every support order also produces an income withholding order, effective immediately unless the parties agree in writing to another arrangement and the court enters it. Payments go through the clerk of court or the state disbursement unit, never hand to hand, because a payment the clerk did not see is a payment that did not happen. Each parent must tell the clerk in writing within fifteen days of a change of address or employment. The court also has to order medical support: coverage if it is available at reasonable cost, and a split of the uncovered expenses.
Changing the number later
An order more than six months old can be reviewed if applying the table to current incomes would move support by twenty percent or more a month; that showing is itself a change of circumstances. A petition based on a substantial change can be filed at any time. Every three years either parent can ask for a review without showing any change at all. Modification is not retroactive except by agreement or back to the date the petition was served. And support does not stop on its own when a child turns eighteen or graduates: the existing order stays enforceable until a new one is entered, so the petition has to be filed.
This article is general information about Wyoming law, not advice about your case.
