Background
Robert D. Swift and Jennifer L. Poitras began dating in 2018, and their twins were born in May 2019. The parties maintained a long-distance relationship, with Swift traveling from Michigan and staying as a guest in Poitras’s Naples home. Poitras took six months of leave after childbirth, including three unpaid months, and incurred nanny and daycare expenses. After the relationship ended in August 2020, Swift filed a paternity action. He later moved to Naples, and the parties began equal timesharing in May 2022.
Following a five-day trial, the circuit court awarded Poitras child support retroactive to the twins’ birth, finding that she needed support and Swift had the ability to pay. In calculating the award, the court credited Swift for certain tax deductions, 120 overnights in 2019 and 2020, and travel expenses. It did not credit Poitras for her daycare payments or make findings concerning her nanny expenses. Swift appealed the amended final paternity judgment, and Poitras cross-appealed.
The Court’s Holding
The Sixth District affirmed the discretionary decision to award child support retroactive to May 2019. The twins’ birth fell within the statutory period preceding the August 2020 petition, and competent, substantial evidence supported the findings that Poitras needed support and Swift could pay. The court also found no abuse of discretion on the parties’ remaining appellate issues and otherwise affirmed the judgment.
The court nevertheless reversed the calculation of retroactive support based on five errors. The circuit court used unsupported tax deductions for Swift in 2019 and 2020; improperly credited him with overnights spent as a guest in Poitras’s home; incorrectly entered his travel expenses in the guidelines worksheets; failed to make findings about the amount and necessity of Poitras’s nanny expenses; and omitted Poitras’s documented 2020 daycare expenses. The case was remanded for corrected calculations and appropriate findings, principally using figures already contained in the record.
Judge Kamoutsas concurred with the retroactive-child-support rulings but dissented from the affirmance of the decision changing the children’s names, which he considered an abuse of discretion.
Key Takeaways
- A retroactive child-support award must be calculated under Florida’s statutory guidelines, and every figure in the guidelines worksheet must be supported by competent, substantial evidence.
- A parent visiting and staying as a guest in the other parent’s home is not entitled to overnight-timesharing credit for the children’s nights in that home.
- Employment-related childcare expenses must be addressed in the support calculation: the trial court must include proven daycare costs and make reviewable findings when nanny expenses are disputed.
Why It Matters
The decision underscores that discretion to award retroactive child support does not excuse inaccuracies in the statutory calculation. Courts and practitioners cannot rely on tax deductions or other figures automatically generated by child-support software unless evidence in the record supports them.
It also clarifies that informal visits in the custodial parent’s household do not necessarily count as overnight timesharing and emphasizes the need to account expressly for childcare and travel expenses when calculating retroactive support.