Child Support

Child Support provides for the needs of children, including food, shelter, clothing, and education. In 1990, the State Legislature enacted the Maryland Child Support Guidelines Statute that continues to govern the award of child support in this state. This statute provides a formula for calculating child support based upon consideration of the monthly actual income of each parent. Actual income includes the following:

Including the following:

• Salaries
• Wages
• Commissions
• Bonuses
• Dividend income
• Pension income
• Interest income
• Social security benefits
• Workers' compensation benefits
• Unemployment insurance benefits

The amount of actual income is adjusted, in making the child support calculation, by reduction for any pre-existing child support obligation and any alimony payment obligation, and by the addition of alimony payments to the actual income of the recipient. Use of the Guidelines to calculate the amount of child support is mandatory unless a parent can establish that the application of the guidelines would be unjust and inappropriate in a particular case.