CHICAGOLAWBULLETIN.COM TUESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2017 ® Volume 163, No. 242 Serving Chicago’s legal community for 163 years Maintenance, child support reform sounds good, but it’s complicated I llinois’ maintenance and using the guideline formula re- (505(a)(3)(B)). Specifically, the child support statutory sults in the proper amount and MODERN FAMILY following may be subtracted: scheme is complicated and duration of maintenance. Use of state and federal income taxes, loaded with detail. Recent the formula is required when the Social Security and the like. legislative changes intend- parties’ combined income is less These are standardized and net- ed to improve, simplify and ar- than $250,000 and, from this ted by using the Adopted Income rive at predictable decisions has July forward, the parties com- Conversion Table published by instead complicated the bined income is less than the Illinois Department of process, made decision-making $500,000. DONALDC. Healthcare and Family Services more difficult and is of question- This covers a high percentage (505(A)(3)(C)). SCHILLER able fairness. of people divorcing in Illinois. As an alternative, these deduc- As one studies and delves into The measure for determining the tions may be individualized the content of 750 ILCS 504 and duration of maintenance is the (505(A)(3)(D)) if the parties 505, one finds more complica- duration of marriage. The Donald C. Schiller is a senior partner at agree or, if they do not agree, as tions and areas for confusion statute defines the marriage’s Schiller, DuCanto & Fleck LLP. He is a ordered by the court (another than those apparent on the sur- duration as being from the date former president of the Illinois State potential for litigation). face. Both sections’ confusing of marriage to the date the disso- Bar Association, chair of the ABA In addition, “adjustments” Family Law Section and chair of the and distracting paragraphs and lution action is filed. may be subtracted to get to “net ISBA Family Law Section. In addition subparagraph’s, numbering and Depending on the marriage income” for multifamily to his active practice, he teaches lettering, reflect how this legisla- duration, the duration for main- (505(a)(3)(F)(I)) and spousal Divorce Practice at the University of tion was patched with compro- tenance payments are to be Chicago Law School. He can be reached maintenance payments (II). For mises of competing legislative equal to graduating periods of at dschiller@sdflaw.com the multifamily adjustment (Sub- philosophies. between 20 percent and 80 per- section (i)), the adjustment is The purpose of this article is cent of the duration of the mar- of needing to make findings ex- simple as one may subtract what to raise the reader’s awareness of riage. For periods of more than plaining reasons whenever it is paid under a court order. How- the depth of these complexities. 20 years, permanent mainte- does not follow guidelines. The ever, the multifamily adjustment First, with Section 504 dealing nance may be ordered at the findings must include what the (Subsection (ii)) would be a sub- with maintenance and second, court’s discretion (504 (b– amount and duration of mainte- traction for payments without a with Section 505 dealing with 1)(1)(B)). nance would have been using the court order and another poten- child support, which is the most If the maintenance is ordered guideline ((b-2)(2)). tial for litigation. complicated and packed with po- where the marriage is less than Now, turning to child support The parent with a child from a tential litigation. 10 years at the time of filing, the Section 5/505, whenever child different relationship may deduct As a matter of policy, the Illi- court may make the duration pe- support is to be determined, what is actually paid to the other nois maintenance legislation riod nonmodifiable (b-4.5). The maintenance, if any, must be de- parent or, if the child lives with adopted in 2016 and recently presumptive maintenance uses a termined first. The principal rea- the party, the lesser of what the amended, effective this July, at- formula taking gross income as son for this is that spousal party spends for that child or 75 tempted to create for most cases defined in child support statute maintenance received in the pro- percent of what would have been a streamlined option for courts 5/505(a)(3)(A) and (3.2). This ceeding is part of the calculation the child support guideline using and parties to employ in deter- would include not only actual for “net income” of the recipient the party’s income alone without mining how much and for how gross income, but “potential” in- as an adjustment downward for subtracting this adjustment, long maintenance should be paid come for those under employed the payor (5/505(a)(3)(F)(II)). whichever is less. or received. or unemployed — a major poten- To do guideline child support This lays the seeds for litiga- The first step in dealing with tial issue for litigation. calculations, one must determine tion and the issue of who spent maintenance is to determine The formula requires comput- the “gross income” and from that what for whom can waste a lot of whether there should be any ing 30 percent of the payor’s calculate the “net income” for time. Even after any dispute and maintenance at all (5/504(a) and gross income and subtracting each party (5/505(a)(2)(B)). As the multifamily adjustment is (b-2)(1)). In doing so, the court from that 20 percent of the discussed, “gross income” is calculated, the court on finding must make findings for its rea- payee’s gross income with the broadly defined and includes of hardship for the child can vary sons for granting or denying difference being paid to the “potential” income for either from the calculation. maintenance referring to the fac- payee, so long as the payee is not party who is unemployed or un- Once the “net income” for tors set out in 504(a)(1)–(12). If receiving more than 40 percent deremployed (5/505(a)(3.2)). each party is determined, the maintenance is denied, there is of the parties’ combined gross in- Next, from each parties’ re- statute sets out the computa- no more to do. If it is granted, the come. spective gross incomes, there are tions for arriving at the “basic court goes to the next step. Be sure to have a calculator reductions for permissible de- child support obligation” in The next step deals with the with you at all times. ductions and adjustments to get 5/505(a)(1.5). Both parties’ net mandatory presumption that The court is put in a position to each parties’ “net income” incomes are combined. Then we Copyright © 2017 Law Bulletin Media. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from Law Bulletin Media.must turn to the Income Shares child support for children whose split custody when children are counting nights, hours or days. Schedule Based on Net Income parents’ combined net income divided and living with the par- Again, courts are mandated to published by the Illinois Depart- per month exceeds the maximum ents separately (paragraph 3.9). follow guidelines unless they ment of Healthcare and Family is not to be less than the amount Here, parents compute what make findings providing reasons Services. based on a combined income of would be their respective basic for deviating from them (3.4). On that schedule, the ranges $30,024.99 per month, and may child support obligation using The findings must be in writing for combined net income are in be more at the court’s discretion their respective separate in- and the court must specify why the far left column. Once the cor- (3.5). comes. Then, the parent with the following the guidelines would rect range of combined net in- If the foregoing is not enough, greater obligation would sub- be inequitable, unjust or inap- come is found, look across the Section 5/505 provides for child tract the payee’s obligation from propriate. schedule to the column showing support adjustments downward what they would owe and pay the The statute gives examples of the relevant number of children. if the payor has the children for difference. things that could lead to devia- At the intersection of those 146 or more overnights a year. Determining the parties’ re- tions such as where there may be columns is the applicable “basic This is treated under the statue spective shares of the basic child extraordinary medical expendi- child support obligation.” as shared physical care. For this, support obligation not only needs tures for party or child ((3.4)(A)) Once this is found, each another formula increases the knowledge, negotiation and liti- and expenses for a special needs party’s percentage of their com- “basic child support” by 50 per- gation skills, but being computer child ((3.4)(B)). bined income must be deter- cent and then computes each savvy and having a great soft- This article is not intended to mined. Each parties’ obligation party’s share of that based on ware program. Otherwise, be cover all of Sections 504 and 505. for the “basic child support” is their respective percentages of prepared to spend a day just on There are many more provisions equal to their respective percent- the combined net income. the math. and likely obligations such as ages of the combined income Then, it is further adjusted by The shared parenting down- costs for medical insurance, used for determining support the percentage of overnights the ward adjustments are particular- medical expenses not covered, from the Income Shares Sched- payee has and the payor is to pay ly concerning as they incentivize child care and extracurricular ule. The party receiving the sup- the payee for their share of the parents to count the number of activities. The purpose here is to port does not actually pay his or basic child support a sum equal days and nights a child is with raise awareness of just how bur- her percentage share to the to the percentage of overnights them when negotiating their allo- densome and complicated the party who is the payor, as it is the payee has, multiplied by their cation of parental responsibili- process has become. presumed they will spend it di- share of the previously computed ties and parenting time. The statutes only pay lip serv- rectly on the child. amount calculated from the par- One parent may want to get a ice to judicial discretion. The Guidelines are mandatory, un- ties’ percentages of net income. child support discount, while the statutory scheme makes deviat- less the court makes detailed, It should be clear by now that other would not want to agree to ing from guidelines more diffi- specific findings that application in shared physical care cases, anything that gives the other a cult and burdensome for courts, of the guidelines is inappropriate lawyers not only need their cal- break. Giving incentives for this while not saving as much court (3.4). The guidelines go up to culators but well-disciplined is contrary to the long history of and lawyer time and costs as in- combined net income of minds. advising parents that quality tended because there is so much $30,024.99 per month. Basic Also, there is a formula for time is more important than within them to litigate. Copyright © 2017 Law Bulletin Media. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from Law Bulletin Media.