The Illinois Child Support Guidelines are established by Illinois statute and are outlined in Section 505 of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act. By law, the guidelines set child support amounts as a percentage of the Obligor’s (paying or supporting party’s) net income.
Generally, child support is not included as income for the Obligee (the receiving party), or as a deduction for the Obligor, on tax returns.
If both child support and spousal maintenance are being paid, there may be an option available for child support to be claimed as income for the Obligee, and deductible for the Obligor. When the Obligor’s payments are “allocated” between separate maintenance and child support payments, the Obligor may only deduct the maintenance portion and not the child support portion. But if the maintenance and child support payments are “unallocated”, or combined into one maintenance payment, this may allow the Obligor to deduct the entire amount of unallocated support (the combination maintenance and child support amount) for tax purposes.
NOTE: There are specific tax laws and requirements that apply to unallocated support, so consideration of use and calculation of this type of support should be made very carefully.