ALIMONY AND CHILD SUPPORT

Calvin C. v Amelia A.

A recent decision involving alimony and child support.

Calvin is a case about alimony and child support. G.L. c. 208 Sec 53(c) provides that, "when issuing an order for alimony, the Court shall exclude from its income calculation... Gross income which the Court has already considered for setting a child support order." Section 53(c) was met to address an inequity in cases where one spouse is ordered to pay child support and alimony to the other spouse. In those cases, alimony is calculated without consideration of the effect of the child support order on the payee's ability to pay both support orders.

While Calvin deals with reciprocal payments, where one spouse pays alimony while the other pays child support, the Court was still able to address whether courts may order alimony and child support to the same spouse when the parties earn less than $250,000.00.

The Calvin Court clarifies that "that calculating alimony first usually necessitates using the parties' adjusted, post alimony incomes when calculating child support to avoid running afoul of G. L. c. 208, § 53(c)(2), this principle typically applies in cases where one spouse is the sole payor of both alimony and child support…. in cases where one spouse pays both child support and alimony, and the parties' combined income is less than $250,000 … the alimony payment should be treated as income available to the recipient (rather than to the payor) for purposes of calculating child support."

New Child Support Guidelines: Effective October 4, 2021, parties will need to calculate child support pursuant to new guidelines which raises the prior $250,000 threshold to $400,000 of combined income for determining support. See attached link to guidelines and new four-page child support worksheet. https://www.mass.gov/info-details/child-support-guidelines#2021-guidelines,-forms,-and-information-

If you have questions about interpreting or working with the new guidelines, please schedule a consult with us.