Alimony represents a certain amount of money that a parent who does not live with them must pay for the maintenance of minor children. How is their size determined?
The payment of alimony for the maintenance of minor children is the responsibility of parents who do not live with them: this requirement is established by article 80 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation, registered in the code of laws of our country under number 223-FZ of December 29, 2005. However, this regulation provides parents with a fairly large degree of freedom in determining their size.
Determination of the amount of alimony
One of the ways to determine the amount of monthly cash payments for child support is to conclude an agreement on this issue between the parents. Thus, they jointly and voluntarily set the amount that a parent who does not live with the children will pay to the parent living with them to meet their needs. It is important to remember that such an agreement is subject to mandatory notarization. In addition, when reaching an agreement on the amount of alimony, it is worth taking into account the provisions of paragraph 2 of Article 103 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation, which states that the amount of payments under the agreement cannot be lower than the amount of alimony that the child could receive if it was defined in judicial procedure.
Accordingly, the judicial procedure for determining the amount of alimony is the second main method used in our country to establish its amount. In this case, the court is usually guided by the provisions of paragraph 1 of Article 81 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation, which establishes the amount of alimony in the form of a share of the income of the parent who has the obligation to pay them. So, in the case of claiming alimony for one child, 1/4 of the monthly income is allocated for these purposes, 1/3 of the income for two children, and 1/2 of the income for three children.
The ratio of the subsistence minimum and alimony
Despite the absence of such information directly in the indicated sections of the Family Code of the Russian Federation devoted to calculating the amount of payments, this regulatory legal act contains a requirement to link the amount of alimony to the amount of the subsistence minimum. Such requirements are contained in article 117, on the indexation of alimony. So, paragraph 2 of this article establishes that if the payment is determined by a court decision, the court must fix them in an amount that is a multiple of an integral value or a share of the subsistence minimum. For example, the amount of alimony in a lump sum can be set at 1.5 times the minimum subsistence level for each child.
Such a requirement is fixed in the law in order to fulfill the conditions of paragraph 1 of Article 117 of the Family Code. The fact is that alimony obligations are subject to annual indexation in accordance with the change in the value of the subsistence minimum.
