Child support is separate and distinct from alimony. Alimony is tax deductible to the payer and taxable to the recipient. Child support is not deductible and is not taxable. Alimony is ordered in cases where spousal support is required. By definition, child support can only be ordered with the presence of children.
Cases often involve both alimony and child support.
The child support order produced from each state's formula can vary dramatically based on the assumptions in any one case. Under a given set of assumptions, a state's formula might produce a result close to the median for all states. There are very few studies comparing child support guidelines across the nation. However, the following reports were located by the author. Maureen A. Pirog, Professor of Public Policy Analysis, Indiana University 3.