Under the Minnesota child support law that has been in effect since 2007, the amount of child support is based on both parents' incomes. There is a guideline table in the statute that provides a set amount of base support that a child or children are entitled to based upon the sum of mom's income and dad's income. The amount of the payor parent's obligation is figured by that parent's proportional share of the two parents' combined income applied to the base support in the aforementioned guideline table.
If the parents have equal, or nearly equal, parenting time (i.e., if the child's living arrangement reflects joint physical custody), the calculation is different (...and too complicated to explain in brief space here.) Suffice it to say, the payor parent's obligation is substantially less.
The joint custodian's lower child support obligation reflects the fact that the joint custodian is contributing to regular, daily expenses in a manner that a non-custodial payor parent does not. That is to say that, in the first example above, the obligor parent pays child support to the custodial parent, and the custodial parent covers the child's expenses, including clothing, footwear and regular, extracurricular activities. (The payor parent does cover incidental expenses during parenting time, such as food, movie tickets and travel expenses.) In the second example above, the joint custodian pays a LESSER amount of child support, but also contributes to the child's expenses, such as clothing, footwear and extracurricular activities (and not just parenting time expenses).
There are times when a payor parent views it as a "bad deal" to pay the "higher" amount of child support. The up side is not having to contribute additionally to day-to-day expenses. Conversely, the "down" side of paying the "lower" amount of support that a joint custodian pays is having to also contribute to day-to-day expenses.
