so the guideline calculation for child

support in Colorado is based on the

incomes of both parties the number of

overnights that each parent has with the

children and who’s paying things like

health insurance extraordinary medical

if there are extraordinary expenses for

activities and work-related or

school-related child care it all goes

into a formula and there’s a table of

Child Support amounts that goes up to a

certain combined gross income there’s a

threshold I think it’s 240 000 now

combined gross income and that’s all in

a table if parties have combined gross

incomes that exceed that threshold

amount then the court has the option

under Colorado law to extrapolate and

that means to extend the child support

beyond the child support tables things

like kids going to private school or

extraordinary medical expenses that are

not covered by Insurance those are

handled under the statute but they’re

not automatic they’re often just shared

by the parties and proportion to their

percentage share of the combined gross

income if one party doesn’t work or if

one party is underemployed that is

they’re not employed full-time the court

can impute that person and a reasonable

rate of income based on their experience

and their education and their ability to

work so generally speaking even if

someone is not working they will be

imputed income some exceptions are young

parents who are home with children

people who are in an educational program

that’s reasonably expected to earn them

a higher income so there are some

exceptions to imputation of income