The court determines the amount of child support based upon the Florida Child Support Guidelines pursuant to Florida Statutes §61.30. In Florida, child support is based on a mathematical formula defined by law and based on the parents' income and the particular parenting plan in place. Under the Florida Child Support Guidelines, the steps for determining the amount of child support are:

1. Each parent's gross monthly net income (gross income minus the allowable deductions, which are detailed in the statute). Gross income includes all income earned by the parent, including benefits received that reduce the parent's living expenses;
2. The parent's net incomes are added together to produced a combined net income. Each parent's net income is then divided by the combined net income to determine a percentage obligation for each parent;
3. The schedule under Florida Statutes $61.30 provides the minimum child-support obligation based on the parents' combined net income and the number of children. The amount is multiplied by the percentage obligation to obtain an actual dollar amount of support for each parent;
4. To this basic support amount are added:
   a. 75% of monthly care costs;
   b. health-insurance costs for the children and expenses for non-covered medical and dental care and prescription drugs for the children;
5. The court may adjust the child-support amount, up or down, taking into consideration the time-sharing arrangement, the cost of exercising visitation, the independent income of the child, seasonable variations in income, etc.;
6. When the parenting plan provides for a time-sharing arrangement that provides for one parent to have the child for more than 40% of the overnights in a year, a different child-support formula is used. So, if one parent shares time with the children for 45% of the nights and the other parent share the remaining 55% of the time, the gross-up method is applied. The gross-up method will cut child support very significantly, often by approximately 50%. In some instances, depending on the income, the parent sharing time with the child more than 50% of the nights could end up paying child support to the other.

Jacqueline M. Valdespino is the founder of the family and matrimonial law firm Valdespino & Associates, P.A. in Miami which specializes in complex litigation of family-law cases. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and received the Tobias Simon Award (2003) and the American Bar Association Ann Liechty Child Custody Award (2003). Ms. Valdespino is fluent in Spanish and Italian.

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