Filing Status

You have the following options for your filing status in Child support cases:

Single

Tax filers that claim “Single” receive the least tax savings and therefore their total income for which to pay support is reduced compared to the other tax filings. However, if you are the recipient of child support and you are filing “Single”, then you will have a greater need to pay support as you will not have this tax savings.

Head of Household:

Tax filers that claim “Head of Household” typically have the child(ren) at least 50.01 % of the time to qualify for this tax filing status. By filing Head of Household, you receive an additional tax savings over those who file as “Single”. As such, if you are the payor of child support, you will have more money available to which you can pay child support based on the higher tax savings. If you are the recipient of child support and you claim “Head of Household”, you will have a decreased need for child support based on your tax savings.

Married Filing Separately

Married Filing Separately either with your new spouse or the other parent is the equivalent to “Single” as far as the tax savings is concerned which either increases your need for support or decreases your ability to pay support depending on whether you are the payor or the payee.

Married Filing Jointly

Tax filers who claim “Married Filing Jointly” with another spouse will need to provide their new spouse income. Although new spouse income will not be added to the calculation of support as to one party having more money available to pay support, the new spouse’s income may effectively change your tax liability/bracket which would either decrease your ability to pay child support if you are the payor or increase your need for child support if you are the payee of child support.