Minnesota Child Support Law

The state of Minnesota receives federal incentives for every dollar they collect in child support. The middle class parent is stuck paying the bill. The lower income parent does not pay a significant amount of child support for the state to invest in enforcement, and the high income parents have the ability to fight the laws in court. There are three tiers used to determine the amount of child support (tier I 0% to 10%, tier II 10.1% to 45%, and tier III 45.1% and above). A non custodial parent who is with his child 45% of the month will pay the same amount as a parent that sees his child 10% (granted that the income is the same, etc.) Unless the custodial parent agrees to a high percentage of parenting time, the non custodial parent will need to prove child endangerment in order have the child support lowered. The middle class non custodial parent pays a significant amount in child support and usually is unable to afford the legal fees associated with the court system. There needs to be more tiers for non custodial parents allowing for a fairer child support determination.