Question: In Florida, how can I legally avoid paying child support?
First, all child support in Florida must be calculated according the child support guidelines. So to legally avoid paying child support, you need to manipulate the factors used in the calculation in order to produce a child support amount that is as close as possible to zero.
In my experience, judges will allow you to pay zero if the guidelines show a low amount of monthly child support – such as $25. This can be done in some – but certainly not all cases.
Second, you need to understand the factors used in the child support calculation. In Florida, child support is based on income, deductions from income such as taxes and child support paid in other cases, as well as day care expense, the child medical insurance cost, and the number of nights spent with each parent over the course of a year.
The most common way for child support to be close to zero, is when the parents spend equal time with the child and earn about the same income.
If the parents incomes are not roughly the same, the way to eliminate child support – other than lying about income and the other factors // which you should never do – is to vary the number of nights that each parent spends with the child until you get to a very low child support amount.
The potential problem with this process is that it may result in a number of nights with the child that one or both parents are not comfortable with.
