1.1.C.140 Child support percentage
Definition
A parent's (1.1.P.10) child support percentage is calculated for each child in the assessment and identifies which parent in an assessment is generally required to pay child support (1.1.C.60). The child support percentage is calculated as follows:
If a parent's child support percentage for a child is positive, they are generally not meeting their share of the COTC (1.1.C.210) (based on their share of the income) through care (1.1.C.10) and may be liable to pay child support for that child.
If a parent's child support percentage for a child is negative, they are generally meeting more than their share of the COTC through care. They may be entitled to receive child support for that child.
A parent can have different child support percentages for each child in an assessment if the care arrangement for each child is different. In this situation, the child support liability for each child is calculated, and the parent with the net liability will be required to pay child support.
However, a parent with a positive child support percentage for a child is not liable to pay child support for the child where the other parent has less than 35% care of the child. This reflects the principle that a parent with little to no care of a child should not be entitled to child support for that child.
If a non-parent carer is an eligible carer (1.1.E.10) (has at least shared care (1.1.S.40)) they may be eligible for child support and will not have a child support percentage calculated because their income is not used in child support assessments (1.1.C.70). If there is more than one carer for a child, a non-parent carer's cost percentage (1.1.C.200) can be used to distribute child support between the carers. See 2.2.3 for information about assessments with non-parent carers.