Last time we talked about the basics of why gross income is used instead of net income and now we will talk a little about how to calculate it. Calculating gross pay is normally very easy: we look at your year-to-date pay stub or your most recent W-2 and do some math to come up with a monthly average. This usually evens out any spikes in pay for overtime or things like that. For most people that is the end of it, but the process is different for self-employed individuals. S

Last time we talked about the five basic things that go into the guideline child support calculation and today we are going to discuss the first two, i.e. the gross monthly incomes of the parents. Notice that the formula uses gross income and not net income. It may seem fair to look at how much someone actually gets each paycheck to determine how much they can afford to pay, but remember that child support is not designed to be fair. It is very easy to add deductions, by in