How to calculate child support in 2021 and up to what age can he receive it?

Alimony payments in 2021

Alimony is the amount that one of the parents pays for the maintenance of minor children: buying food, clothing, paying for education, etc.

These payments cannot be waived . These are mandatory payments, and their payers are divided into two groups: the first pay voluntarily, the second only through the court. But sometimes you have to go to court even if there is good will. For example, a party agrees to pay alimony, but the claimant is not satisfied with its amount. Then the court will determine the amount of child support for the minor child.

Alimony payments are assigned in a flat amount or as a share of the payer’s income . In practice, a share of income is assigned if the party has a permanent official income. For example, a white salary. Then the amount of alimony for one child will be equal to ¼ of the income, for two - ⅓, for three or more - half of the income.

A fixed payment is assigned to those who do not have an official or permanent income. Also, a fixed amount is often prescribed for individual entrepreneurs. The court does not take fixed alimony payments out of the blue; it focuses on the subsistence level.

Exceptions to the general rule

There may be one exception to the rule established by law, if a child, even an adult, is disabled and in need of financial assistance from his parents.

In this case, according to Article 85 of the Family Code, alimony can be ordered by the court if there is no such agreement between the child’s parents. The term “disability” in this case means the presence of disability of any group.

How is alimony determined after 18 years of age?

If alimony was previously paid to a child with a disability, then its payment stops, because the child has become a full adult. In this case, the child himself or his legal representative receives the right through the court to resolve the problem with further alimony payments.

The legal proceedings will be litigious. This means that a well-drafted statement of claim for alimony must be submitted to the court. The applicant can apply for payments only after the judicial act comes into force.

In this case, alimony cannot be shared in relation to the defendant’s income. The rules of the Family Code regulating such situations provide only fixed alimony payments. This means that the specific amount of payments is assigned on an individual basis, when the court takes into account all the circumstances of the case.

Voluntary alimony payments

The procedure for withholding alimony in the presence of good will is simple. It is enough to bring to the accounting department of the company where the payer works an application to withhold alimony from the salary. In the document please indicate:

• the date from which alimony is paid;
• alimony amount - fixed or share;
• timing of transfer of money in favor of the recipient;
• recipient's bank details.

Please attach a copy of the alimony agreement to your application. If alimony is established through the court, then instead of an agreement, bring a writ of execution.

When establishing alimony payments through the court, the judge relies on the current minimum wage. The minimum wage in this case is the minimum payment of child support . In 2021, the minimum wage is 12,130 rubles. That is, the amount of child support for 1 child is at least ¼ of the minimum wage or 3,032 rubles. 50 kopecks, for 2 people - 4,043 rubles. 33 kopecks, for 3 or more children - 6,065 rubles.

There is an important feature: if the payer works officially, but pays alimony below the amounts mentioned above, the claimant can contact the bailiffs or tax authorities . In this case, the authorities will organize an inspection of the enterprise and determine why the employee receives a salary below the minimum wage.

The paying parent may not have official income. Then the court focuses on the cost of living for the child in the region. Such payments are usually fixed and change only when the cost of living changes . Solid alimony is subject to annual indexation; shares are not indexed.

The subsistence level is the basis for the minimum amount of child support payments. The court may set the amount of alimony to be collected and more if the other parent provides evidence that the alimony payer can pay that much.

Other grounds for termination of payments

Reaching the age of eighteen is only one of several grounds that may cause the termination of alimony payments. True, they are in no way connected with the onset of certain age limits. Thus, the law names as other reasons:

• The death of a child for whom alimony was paid, or the death of the alimony payer.
• Adoption of a child by another citizen.
• Declaring a child fully competent

In the first case, if the parent obligated to pay child support has died, the other parent can apply for a pension for the child from the Pension Fund. This government assistance is provided in cases where children lose their breadwinners. The alimony payer is considered to be the breadwinner. The social benefit is called a survivor's pension.

In the second case, adopting a child is a good way for the biological parent to get rid of the child support burden that was imposed by the court. If a child’s father (mother) has changed, then it is he who becomes obligated not only to raise the child, but also to support him financially.

The third case speaks of emancipation, when a child can be declared emancipated by a court decision or by a decision of the guardianship and trusteeship authority. This is possible, in particular, when the child is engaged in business. You can also talk about emancipation when a minor child gets married.

Forced collection of alimony

Not all parents are willing to pay child support. It is possible to collect alimony from draft dodgers only through a court that issues a writ of execution . After receiving the sheet, it can be presented to the bailiffs for execution within 3 years.

You can do it without bailiffs. If you know where the alimony payer works, send a writ of execution to his employer . The company is required to withhold alimony from all income it pays to him.

The paying parent may not have official income. Then the bailiffs will seize all the income that the alimony payer receives. If there are none, the recovery will be directed to the property of the debtor. For each day of delay in alimony payments, interest will be charged - 0.5% of the total amount of debt for late payment .

In 2021, the legislator plans to make changes to the punishment for alimony evaders. The Ministry of Justice proposed to amend Article 157 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation . Now the punishment for evasion ranges from correctional labor to imprisonment for up to 1 year.

The courts refuse to initiate criminal cases, since the draft dodgers have found a way out - paying little and rarely. In this case, due to the imperfection of the article, the court loses the grounds for initiating a case. The Ministry of Justice is now developing amendments that will close this loophole.

How does payment stop after age 18?

Therefore, as soon as the child reaches his 18th birthday, the enforcement proceedings initiated on the basis of a court decision to collect alimony will be completed. The bailiff who was involved in enforcement proceedings ends it.

The end of the case is formalized by the Resolution of the bailiff. Both interested parties must be notified of the completion of this action. Each of them has the right to receive a copy of the required document.

In this case, the debtor-payer himself does not need to take any action to stop payments. All necessary measures must be carried out by an official of the Bailiff Service.

It should be taken into account that if the payer still has arrears of alimony, it must be repaid. Only after this the enforcement proceedings will be completed.

Indexation of child support in 2021

Indexing has already been discussed above. It concerns only fixed alimony that is established by the court. Shares are not indexed. Indexation is directly proportional to the indexation of the cost of living.

The need for indexing is due to the following. Collecting alimony from evaders can take a long time. And, for example, the amount of alimony assigned in 2005 will be negligible in 2021. Therefore, the increase in the amount of debt is tied to the increase in the cost of living. Consequently, the draft dodger's debt will increase annually.

The cost of living for the first half of 2019 is now known. It was established by Order of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation No. 561n dated 08/09/2019. The same amount will become the minimum wage and subsistence level for 2020. For the working population - 12,130 rubles, for children - 11,004 rubles. This is what we should proceed from when calculating alimony.

Will child support be abolished in 2021?

Some social movements involved in protecting men's rights advocate the abolition of child support in Russia. One explanation for this requirement is “that women should think 100 times before filing for divorce.” Another common argument is “so that the child’s mother does not enrich herself at the expense of the father.” Supporters of this idea argue that it is alimony that destroys Russian families.

Such “reasons” sound absurd, and the demands are absolutely untenable and illegal. Especially taking into account the average amount of alimony in the Russian Federation, which in 2021 amounted to 7,500 rubles. And not everyone receives this amount; many are content with the minimum of 2000–3000 rubles. per child.

No matter how loudly supporters of such movements voice their demands, alimony will not be abolished either in 2021 or in subsequent years. Such statements, fortunately, are still a curiosity. The state is not going to deviate from the thesis that both parents must provide for the child.

Filing a claim for alimony and preparing for court

You can file alimony in court only when there are grounds for appeal. The main preparatory point is a correctly composed application. It must be written in accordance with Article 131-132 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation, for which a sample can be used. It must indicate not only the correct details, but also circumstances that interfere with the interests of the mother and children who do not receive decent financial support.

The application consists of several sections. The most important part is the descriptive part, where you need to set out the circumstances of the violation of the rights of children and their mothers - recipients of alimony. It is also important to attach supporting documents to your application.

What questions are asked in child support court?

At the trial, various questions will be asked to find out the circumstances of the child’s support and to what extent the parents’ financial capabilities allow them to ensure a decent existence for the minor. You need to answer these questions truthfully, but often, in order to do this, you need to prepare, collect arguments, etc. Fortunately, this is relatively easy to do, since most of the questions are standard. Let's look at the most popular:

1. Do you support the lawsuit? The plaintiff must answer this question in the affirmative, otherwise the meeting will be closed. It will be irrelevant because the person who decided to submit the application refuses it.
2. Have there been any attempts to reach an amicable agreement? The parties could agree on the voluntary contribution of funds. If this happened, the court needs to be told how much was paid and when it was. It is important to honestly indicate if money was transferred, because otherwise, concealing the fact in question may play a cruel joke on you and shift the court to the side of the defendant.
3. How much money is needed to support a child? The amount of child support is calculated to support the child, not his other parent. To confirm the feasibility of the requested amount, submit documents confirming it. For example, receipts for payment for treatment, witness statements, etc. If you need personal support, the required amount cannot be included in this claim. Should be submitted separately.

If the defendant answers the first question in the affirmative, the court will not ask all the others, since the alimony payer already agrees with all points of the claim. If the defendant does not agree to reduce the amount of alimony or pay it to the minimum, it is worth pointing out the financial problems that interfere with payments. It is also important to point out that such inconsistency is temporary.

But this may not help if the reason is personal reluctance to go to work. The reasons for financial difficulties why you cannot pay alimony must be objective. For example, dismissal and search for a new job or temporary disability due to illness.

Deadlines and preparation for trial

When submitting applications for alimony to the magistrate's court, the timing of its consideration is taken into account. But before you start worrying about deadlines, you should think about what the preparatory phase looks like. Preparation for the consideration of the case is a formality. It is important to consider how correctly the sample claim is drawn up and whether the stated argument is truthful. Once applications for the magistrate's court are received, the judicial procedure goes through the following stages:

• Notice of the date of the hearing is sent to the parties and witnesses.
• Information and applications are checked, as well as other additional documents on the basis of which collection can be carried out (as necessary).
• The definition of other non-standard actions depends on the circumstances of the case.

The law does not have clear deadlines for how long the consideration of a settlement case will take. But still there are some time frames. For example, the magistrate court must consider the process for a month. If the case is heard not in the magistrates' court, but in the district court, it will be studied for up to 60 days. It takes 5 days to accept a claim for clerical processing, although during the period under consideration the case may be rejected. The preparatory stage lasts about two weeks.

When can additional payments be collected from the alimony provider?

Payments towards additional expenses for the needs of the child can only be awarded in exceptional circumstances. Such cases under the new rules include:

• serious illness or injury of children;
• the need to pay for outside child care;
• lack of residential premises suitable for permanent residence and the need to improve the child’s living conditions.

Previously, the court could also recover additional payments from the parent, but only in cases of illness or injury to the children.

Now additional payments can be collected simply to improve the child’s living conditions.

Alimony from the self-employed: what the law says

A self-employed citizen is an individual who pays tax on professional income.
The essence of self-employment is simple: if a taxpayer has income, he pays tax on it. If there is no income, you do not need to pay tax. This tax regime is designed specifically for those who do not have regular customers and receive money irregularly - in case of downtime, they will not have to make mandatory payments from their own pocket. The question arises: how can a self-employed person pay child support? He does not have a stable income, which means that it will not be possible to set alimony as a percentage of the earnings received - in months without income, the child may be left without money. In this case, you should be guided by the rules of Art. 83 of the RF IC - it provides the opportunity to collect alimony in a fixed amount.

How to behave in child support court

You need to behave correctly in court. Hire a lawyer and bring him to the courtroom. It will help you navigate unusual circumstances. Also, you cannot speak until it is your turn, otherwise the meeting on alimony will turn into a farce. Conduct the conversation in a calm manner, without raising your voice and without unnecessary emotions. Insults are strictly prohibited. When addressing the judge, you need to stand up. A common address is “Dear Judge.”

If you violate the judicial order and the rules adopted in court, problems may arise. For example, the violator will be given a fine or other administrative penalty, after which alimony is not the biggest problem. Sometimes inappropriate behavior of the parties can provoke them to receive a criminal sentence. Then filing an application for alimony will not be so relevant.

You can get legal assistance regarding the alimony court process on our website.

If the parents were able to agree on the amount of child support

If the parents were able to independently determine the amount that one of them would transfer to the other to meet the needs of the child, there is no need to go to court. The agreement must be sealed with an agreement (clause 1 of Article 80 of the RF IC). The agreement must be certified by a notary - otherwise it will be considered invalid (Clause 1 of Article 100 of the RF IC).

The agreement must include the following information:

• procedure for calculating the amount of alimony;
• frequency and timing of money transfers;
• transfer method.