"Good" Grandparents Not Taxed Twice

Child support, under Florida law, is calculated based on two main factors:

1)     The net incomes of both parents, and

2)     The number of overnights that each parent has with the child or children

So what happens when a child lives with grandparents instead of the parents. These situations are not as uncommon as one might think. Well, certainly the grandparent is entitled to apply for child support. But whose income is considered for making the calculation of the support amount?

Both the First and Second District Courts of Appeal in Florida have consistently ruled that only the incomes of the parents are used to make the child support calculations, and not the income of the grandparents.

In both DOR v. Channey ,  37 Fla.L. Weekly D1369(1^st DCA 2012) and  D.F. v. Department of Revenue ex rel, 736 So.2d 782,784 (Fla. 2d DCA 1999), the courts determined that, notwithstanding that children lives with grandparents, only the two parents’ incomes were to be used to calculate the support.

The rational, in citing to Chapter 409 Florida Statutes, was that “It is…the public policy of this state…that children…be maintained from the resources of their parents…”

Now that’s a novel concept….parents actually being responsible for the support of their children.