• Indiana child support guidelines are flexible on overtime.courthouse image by pearlguy from Fotolia.com
  
  The Indiana Child Support Rules and Guidelines sets out Indiana laws on including overtime in child support. These rules and guidelines are not binding on Indiana judges who set child support amounts for noncustodial parents in a divorce proceeding. However, most judges follow them unless to do so would be unjust. If a judge decides to deviate from the guidelines, the judge must write out the reasons for doing so. The guidelines are somewhat flexible when it comes to calculating overtime into the child support order.
  
  

Gross Weekly Income

• To calculate the amount of child support the noncustodial parent must pay, the court first adds up the weekly gross income of both parents. Gross weekly income includes, among other things, wages, salaries, commissions, interest, trust income, capital gains, annuities, government benefits, gifts and pensions. The guidelines specifically state that overtime constitutes gross weekly income. Therefore, a noncustodial parent who earns overtime will likely pay more than if that parent did not earn overtime because greater gross weekly income will lead to a larger child support amount.
  
  

Other Options

• Because the guidelines are not binding, courts can decline to include overtime in the calculation as long as the court states its reasons. The guidelines explicitly point out that irregular income, like overtime, is subject to downturns in the economy. The guidelines further recognize that past overtime pay may not always equate to future overtime pay. Aside from simply not including overtime, courts have the flexibility to use other methods than simply adding overtime to the gross weekly income. The court, for example, could apply overtime on a weekly, bi-weekly, monthly or quarterly basis. In addition, an Indiana court could simply calculate a percentage of the noncustodial parent's past overtime income and include that in the gross weekly income calculation.
  
  

Modification

• Indiana child support orders remain in effect as written unless one parent requests that the court revise the amount. To modify a child support order, the requesting parent must demonstrate that there has been a "material change in circumstances." Typically, that would be something like a parent losing a job or having a large change in income through a promotion or otherwise. Because the use of variable pay, like overtime, in gross weekly income makes it more likely a parent will later seek to modify the order (for instance, when the parent stops receiving overtime), the guidelines encourage courts to be flexible.
  
  

Warning

• Contact a qualified attorney licensed to practice in Indiana to find out what obligations, if any, you have with regard to Indiana laws on calculating overtime in child support, which are subject to change.