Any divorced couple inevitably faces the problem of further financial support for their common children and calculating the required amount. The issue of alimony can be resolved in two ways - by voluntary agreement of the parties or by a court decision. However, even if they want to come to a compromise solution, many parents do not know how to calculate child support correctly and what factors to focus on in their calculations.
Calculation of child support by voluntary agreement
The conclusion of a voluntary agreement gives parents the right to independently determine child support, but the most important thing is that the calculated amount of alimony should not be lower than the amount that could be assigned by the court. According to established legal standards, it should be 1/4 of the salary for one child, 1/3 for two children and 1/2 for three or more children. It is in this order that child support should be calculated if the payer has an official permanent income, but payments are made after income tax is withheld from the income.
When independently calculating your monthly allowance, you must take into account the following important points:
- alimony is paid for the maintenance of a minor child or disabled adult;
- payments are made voluntarily or compulsorily through the court;
- whether the payer has permanent official employment or not;
- number of children entitled to maintenance;
- method of calculating alimony: as a percentage of earnings, in a fixed form or in kind;
- frequency of payments: one-time, monthly or quarterly.
Calculation and withholding of payments through the court
If there is no consensus between the former spouses on the issue of alimony payments, the calculation is made by court decision, which is based on the following calculation principles:
- According to the generally accepted principle of withholding payments in the form of a percentage, which is described above.
- In the absence of official employment, the court has the right to collect monthly payments from the payer in amounts that will not be lower than the minimum subsistence level for children established in the recipient’s region of residence. In the absence of a regional subsistence minimum, the court takes into account its all-Russian indicator. For example, the size of the MSM for children in the second quarter of 2017 was 9,861 rubles.
- In some cases, when there is earnings in foreign currency, irregular or varying income, the court may order fixed monthly payments to support children. In this case, the individual characteristics of the parties and the needs of the child are taken into account.
Approximate calculation of monthly payments
As an example, the following formula can be used to calculate alimony:
- Accrued income: 30,000 rubles;
- Income tax 13%: 30,000*13%=3900 rubles;
- Salary after personal income tax withholding: 30,000-3900=26,100 rubles;
- Amount of alimony: 26,100*25%=6,525 rubles;
- Salary receivable: 26,100-6,525=19,575 rubles;
Calculation of alimony for less than a month
Often a situation arises when it is necessary to calculate the amount of alimony for less than a month due to the prevailing circumstances:
- the calculation of alimony begins on the next day after the date of the court decision, which, in most cases, may not be the first day of the month;
- change of the payer’s permanent place of employment and change in income level, which can occur on any day of the month;
- the recipient reaches the age of majority and payments must cease on the day the event occurs.
In the question of how to calculate alimony for an incomplete month, at first glance everything is simple and clear, you need to take the amount of monthly earnings, subtract personal income tax, divide by 1/4 and divide by the number of days in the month. The result obtained must be multiplied by the number of days actually worked by the payer.
The only difficulty in this procedure is that the legislation of the Russian Federation does not provide for what to take as the basis for calculation - working or calendar days of the billing month. To find out how alimony is calculated in this case, you need to know which of the two methods is used by a particular employer. Each enterprise has the right to independently determine and document the payment procedure.
An example of calculation by calendar days: citizen Petrov pays part of his earnings for the maintenance of his child every month and he moved to a new place of work from December 20, 2017, where his salary is 35,000 rubles, taking into account the deduction of personal income tax. It is necessary to calculate the amount of payments 11 calendar days before the end of the month:
- 35,000:1/4=8,750 rubles;
- 8,750:31=282 rubles - alimony for one calendar day;
- 282 * 11 (number of calendar days) = 3,102 rubles - the amount of December alimony for one dependent at the new place of work of citizen Petrov;
Some nuances when calculating alimony payments
In modern life, there are often times when a person works at several jobs. In such cases, it is necessary to take several writs of execution and provide one copy to each place of employment, because The company's accounting department has the right to calculate all deductions based on this document. In this case, alimony is calculated and paid from each place of work separately.
If the writ of execution was not promptly submitted to the accounting department, then the amount of alimony from income accrued after its date must also be recovered in full. It turns out that accountants are required to calculate and withhold alimony payments over the past period of time.
Deduction for the maintenance of dependents is always calculated from the actual amount of wages. If during the month the payer took leave without pay, then alimony will be calculated based on the actual time worked. Payments are calculated according to the same principle when a dependent comes of age - only time worked is subject to withholding of payments.
Sometimes the question arises of how to calculate alimony, how to calculate the required amount of payments when the entire parent’s earnings or a certain part of it are paid on the barter principle. With this form of payment for labor, the enterprise’s accounting department must be based on the current market price of the object of barter payment at the time of its transfer to the employee. From the total amount of all property transferred to the employee during the billing period, the amount to provide for his dependents is calculated.
Payers of alimony from among individual entrepreneurs
The calculation of the amount of alimony for individuals who are individual entrepreneurs depends on the taxation system used:
- if an entrepreneur uses a simplified taxation system, alimony payments are calculated according to the average salary in the country;
- in the case of using NKVD, the amount of support for dependents is deducted from the amount of monthly income, but taking into account the deduction of all expenses of the entrepreneur.
Income from which the amount for the maintenance of dependents is calculated
To calculate the amount of alimony, you should take the following income established by law for such purposes:
The law also provides for income from which alimony is prohibited from being withheld:
- amounts of compensation for damage to health;
- compensation for injuries received in the direct performance of official duties;
- compensation for participation in the elimination of man-made disasters;
- benefits for caring for disabled relatives;
- survivor's pensions;
- humanitarian aid.
Child support and taxation
Alimony is always calculated from the payer’s earnings after the 13% income tax has been deducted from him, but for persons with dependents, the Tax Code of the Russian Federation provides for tax deductions - certain amounts from income that are not subject to tax calculations.
From January 1, 2012, the following deductions are provided for citizens of the Russian Federation:
- 1400 rubles for the first and second child;
- 3000 rubles for the third and each subsequent child. A similar amount is not subject to taxation if there are children over 18 years of age who are students.
An example of how to calculate the amount of payments taking into account tax deductions: if a person has a salary of 30,000 rubles and has no more than two children, then the salary accountant in his calculation will first subtract 1,400 rubles from the total amount, from which the employee will not deduct tax and , personal income tax will be deducted from the remaining amount.
To carry out such a procedure on a monthly basis when calculating wages and alimony, you must provide the following documents to the accounting department:
- child's birth certificate;
- voluntary or execution sheet;
- certificate of divorce.