Perhaps the most popular child support model is income shares. It’s used by the majority of US states, see the Illinois changes for example, and has been adopted in other countries. Under the income shares model, separated parents have their income pooled for the purpose of calculating child support.

To understand how it works, we’ll look at how support increases as the income of the payer parent goes up. We’ll also use examples from the Australian income shares system. Right now, there’s a big push in that country for extensive child support reform.

Under income sharing, a rise in payer income generally increases the amount of child support payable (as you’d expect). The manner of increase is what’s interesting. Payers have limited child support obligations at low income levels. However, child support rises steadily at medium to high income levels.

Mathematically, the child support response to an income rise is the cumulative impact of an income share effect, a cost of children effect, and a complex set of cost tables.

A. Income share effect

According to the child support formula, the amount of child support rises in proportion with a payer’s share of combined income. Combined income is the sum of each parent’s child support income (which is taxable income minus a self-support amount).

Because of factors such as the self-support amount, fixed minimum child support rates, credit for any care time, and the other parent’s high income, the income share effect may not be felt until the payer’s income reaches $40k, $50, $60k or more. It also doesn’t apply if the other parent has an income below the self-support amount (since the payer contributes 100%).

B. Cost of children effect

For payers with <50% care, child support obligations go up when their income rises due to a cost-of-children effect. Higher combined income is assumed to increase the cost of children broadly. This works against the parent with <50% care because each parent gets financial credit for direct care.

The cost-of-children effect generally adds to the income share effect. It helps keep child support down for low-income payers. And, when a payer’s income rises, it further adds to the child support increase.

C. Cost tables

The amount of child support is finally decided by cost-of-children tables. To illustrate, by using the tables, we can work out that the cost of a child under 13 who has 2 parents earning $50k each (taxable income) is $8,587 annually.

The tables are constructed so that the cost of a child increases with income but at a declining rate. It starts at 17 cents per extra dollar and drops progressively to 15 cents, 12 cents, 10 cents, 7 cents and zero (at a combined child support income just over $180k).

The relationship between a payer’s income and the amount of child support is complicated not out of sophistication but by poor design. The system routinely produces unfair and inefficient outcomes.

Problem A: Demoralizing effective tax rates

The child support system must balance the need to collect support against the cost of discouraging payers from earning a good income. For many payers, but especially those with little contact time, the system imposes demoralizingly high effective marginal tax rates. Consider this example where, at almost any income level, a payer must give up over half of any extra income.

Children: 2 (mixed age groups)
Care: 100% of time with recipient
Recipient taxable income: $60k p.a.
Payer effective marginal tax rate: 55% – 60% over $30k to $150k income range

Here the payer foregoes 57% of extra income in tax and child support when income rises from $30k to $150k.

• At $30k, the payer pays $2,780 in support and $2,397 in tax.
• At $150k, the payer pays $27,776 in support and $46,132 in tax.
• Over each $30k interval in between, the marginal effective tax rate doesn’t drop below 55%.

Calculation tools: Child Support Calculator (2017), Pay Calculator (2017)

Problem B: Excessively high or low payment rates

A useful child support measure is the nightly cost of extra care above 50:50 care. It asks the question: how much does the recipient receive for each night of care they provide above their fair share? Applying the measure, it is easy to see where child support amounts are too high or low. Here’s an example where the amount is too high.

Children: 2 (mixed age groups)
Care: 8 nights with recipient per fortnight, 6 with payer
Incomes: $60k for recipient, $150k for payer
Dollar rate per night: $505.38 per night ($13,176 per year)

The care arrangement is quite even, with the recipient providing 1 extra night of care per fortnight above an even split. For having a lower income and doing essentially 26 additional nights of care per year, the recipient receives $13,176.

A big potential problem with over-payments is that it discourages the recipient from agreeing to a balanced co-parenting timetable. Children should see both parents often. But a flawed formula creates financial incentives for the recipient parent to dominate care time in order to boost support payments received.

There are many sayings that people use on a daily basis to communicate with their audiences. These sayings have become so common that speakers rarely stop to consider their source. Most of them are derived from historical events and legends. Read on to find out more about the unusual stories behind the origin of top 5 common sayings. The article is brought to you by Activate Press.

1. Caught Red-Handed

To be caught red-handed means to be found doing or initiating something wrong. This phrase was derived from the practice of ancient laws. If a person slaughtered a neighbor’s animal, he was only convicted when there was an evidence of the animal’s blood on his or her hand. Fresh meat alone didn’t make someone guilty.

2. Eat Humble Pie

Eat Humble Pie means giving an apology and being ready to suffer the humiliation that comes along with it. This saying dates back to the Middle Ages. During this time, the king would hold a large feast after a successful hunt. His family would be served with the finest meat while those of the lower status would receive a pie comprising of the innards and entrails, referred to as “umbles.” So being served “umble pie” was a sign of humiliation.

3. Give the Cold Shoulder

This is a rude way of telling a person that he isn’t welcome. Today, giving someone a cold shoulder is considered rude and disrespectful (see cold shoulder jokes). However, in the medieval England, it was actually considered a polite gesture. After a feast, the guests were given a cold piece of meat from the shoulder of pork, mutton or beef. This was a sign that hosts used to communicate to their guests that it was time to leave.

4. Blood is Thicker than Water

This saying simply means family comes before everything else. It was derived from the ancient Middle Eastern culture. During this period, a blood ritual between men was a symbol of stronger bonds than those of family. For instance, warriors who shed blood in the battlefield symbolically shared that blood. They were said to be “blood brothers,” with stronger bonds than that of biological brothers.

5. Break the Ice

This saying means to initiate a friendship or settle a room by telling a joke. Before the invention of cars and trains, port cities and towns that thrived on trade suffered a lot during the winter season. Frozen lakes, seas, and oceans prevented commercial ships from entering the city. To rescue the icebound ships, city authorities used small ships to break the ice. Those small ships were referred to as “icebreakers.”

Jokes and humor are personality psychology. They entertain people or convey a certain message in a literal and hidden manner. In humor and jokes, words are used in a well structured and highly designed narrative structure to entertain people and make them laugh. Humor always starts with a story and ends with a punch line which is the part that will make people laugh and enjoy. There are various types of humor and jokes.

Satirical Humor

This type of humor is tactically used to mock somebody or an event. Irony is used to bring out the story part that somebody might have been engaged in or caused it happen. It also uses sarcasm to bring out the real life vices about the satire story in question. The punch line comes in by making a comment about the story and how it should be.

Self-Disparaging Humor

This is the type of jokes and humor you want to make about yourself. People will love to laugh at how you describe yourself or definitely how you perceive yourself. Although this might make people be uneasy when they are around you, it plays a greater role in bonding with the audience. Self-disparaging humor and jokes is effective in most cases but it should be moderated as people might be bored talking about yourself always.

Witty Humor and Jokes

This type of jokes and humor needs intellectual structuring and is always for the smart and quick minded. One can take any known situation that happened and use it to tease the audience and describe about it. In most cases it is a situation or story that nearly everybody is aware of (e.g. common sayings). They use the story and tactically twist it to march their intentions. When engaging in witty humor be careful not to cross the line and tease or joke about a story that offended many people. This will make the audience dull.

Slapstick Humor and Jokes

Slapstick humor uses physical variations to bring about an awkward moment to the other party that is perceived to be perfect. It gives variations of body movements or structures that create a mock or simulated body harm to bring out a comic effect.

Topical Humor and Jokes

This type of humor focuses entirely on topics making headlines in news, social media or in any communication platform. It Includes topics about politics, sports events, war, economy or any other popular headlines. This humor makes fun of current events, its effects or importance and fun is made on how the events were handled, how it happened and its aftermath.