How Does the New Child Support Guideline Affect Divorce Settlements in Long Island in 2025?
New Child Support Guidelines and Their Impact on Long Island Divorce Settlements in 2025
In 2025, the updated child support guidelines in New York may significantly impact your divorce settlement. These guidelines provide a more detailed approach to calculating child support, taking into account both parents’ incomes and the child’s needs.
Key changes include:
1. More Accurate Income Consideration: The new guidelines account for a broader range of income, including bonuses, overtime, and self-employment income, giving a clearer picture of what each parent is obligated to contribute.
2. Shared Custody Considerations: For parents who share custody, the courts have ruled that where each spouse has the children 50% of the time, the spouse with the greater income will be responsible to pay child support under the guidelines. The current cap under the guidelines is $183,000. This means that the court will calculate child support obligations up to the parties joint income up to a combined level of $183,000. Based upon a number of factors, the court can exceed to cap to increase child support. However in true 50/50 cases most courts will stay at the cap, unless the income of the payor spouse is very high. How far beyond the cap can be at the discretion of the court and can be based upon factors such as the income of the respective parties, their lifestyle, age and health, etc.
3. Special Needs Children: Adjustments have been made to better account for the needs of children with disabilities or other unique circumstances. Most of the changes in such cases have been made to the length of time a child will receive child support. Typically, child support in New York State is paid until a child reaches age 21. A child with a certain level of disabilities can have child support extended until age 26. Thus can vary from case to case and child to child, so we can help you make an assessment to see if you and your child qualify for extended child support.
The attorneys at Todd Zimmer Law & Associates, can help you understand how these new guidelines impact your child support obligations or entitlements.
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