When Do I Stop Paying Child Support?
So, you pay child support in Utah for your kids. They’re fourteen and sixteen. You’re cool with child support (or you should be), but you want to know when will it end?
Now, these are kids we’re talking about, so even when you stop paying child support, you won’t actually stop giving them money. But, at that point you can choose the when, the why, and the how much. And there’s something to be said for that.
Let’s see what Utah law has to say about when you stop paying child support for your kids:
Adjustment when child becomes emancipated.
| (1) | When a child becomes 18 years of age or graduates from high school during the child’s normal and expected year of graduation, whichever occurs later, or if the child dies, marries, becomes a member of the armed forces of the United States, or is emancipated in accordance with Title 78A, Chapter 6, Part 8, Emancipation, the base child support award is automatically adjusted to the base combined child support obligation for the remaining number of children due child support, shown in the table that was used to establish the most recent order, using the incomes of the parties as specified in that order or the worksheets, unless otherwise provided in the child support order. |
Utah Code, Section 78B-12-219(1).
In other words, child support stops when a few major things happen:
- When your child turns eighteen or graduates from high school, whichever happens later.
(Note: the language “normal and expected year of graduation” refers to kids who are held back a grade. So, if you get divorced, and then your kid has to be held back a year, you don’t have to pay child support during that extra year of high school.)
- When you child passes away. Let’s hope this never happens.
- If your child gets married.
- If your child joins the armed forces.
- If your child emancipates.
The most common event, by far, that stops child support is a child turning eighteen or graduating from high school.
So, now you know when your child support will end.
