When you file for divorce, you may still be required to share some expenses with your ex, especially if those expenses have to do with your children. Oftentimes a noncustodial parent will be required to pay child support to the custodial parent each month. This child support is normally used to cover the costs of food and shelter, but it may not cover other necessary shared expenses. This is why a divorce decree may a lot extra costs and finances when it comes to other child-related costs.
Parents normally have to share the responsibility to pay for their child's extracurricular activities. If your son is in baseball and needs to pay for a uniform, then the cost for the uniform and athletic equipment may be shared. If your daughter is taking ballet, parents may be required to split the costs of the ballet lessons. In most situations, parents will split costs evenly.
Also, parents may be required to split to costs of childcare. If the child needs to go to daycare after school, or needs a baby sitter or nanny, then parents will be required to split the expenses. If a child is sent to a private school, rather than a public school, then chances are that parents are required to split to tuition costs. Parents may also need to split any medical costs.
One parent may be responsible for covering the health insurance for the children, but this typically means that the other parent is required to pay all deductibles and co-payments. If the child comes down with an extremely expensive illness, then parents may be required to split the cost of medical care. The divorce settlement should outline how these medical emergencies will be handled.
Parents also may need to split the cost of sending their kids to college if they want to support them in this effort. A parent may give the same monthly amount to the child that he was paying child support. There are some tax laws that regard maximum contributions to savings accounts to pay for a child's college education. If both parents plan to contribute to their child's college, then they will need to agree on how much to pay out annually. Some ex-spouses will discuss college savings as a part of their divorce settlement. Talk to a Los Angeles family attorney if you have more questions about shared expenses in divorce.