Child support

Every state we practice in uses guidelines: formulas set by state law that produce a presumptive support amount. The inputs are broadly similar everywhere: both parents’ incomes, the parenting time schedule, health insurance costs, and childcare. The formulas and their outputs differ meaningfully by state, which is why your state’s page carries the specifics.

The word doing the heavy lifting in that paragraph is income. For W-2 employees, income is a paystub, and the calculation is mostly arithmetic. For business owners, professionals, commissioned salespeople, executives with equity compensation, or anyone self-employed, income is a genuinely contested question. Distributions, retained earnings, bonuses, perks, personal expenses run through a company, deferred compensation: the guideline number is only as honest as the income figure underneath it. In higher-income cases, some states’ guidelines also stop producing automatic answers at the top of the chart, leaving more to judicial discretion. If either parent’s financial life is more complicated than a paycheck, the income analysis is the case.

Courts can deviate from guidelines when applying them would be unjust or inappropriate, with reasons stated. Deviations are the exception. But they exist because formulas can’t see everything, and knowing when to ask for one is part of the craft.

Broader than people assume. The basic obligation targets the child’s share of housing, food, clothing, and everyday life. Around it, orders typically allocate health insurance premiums, unreimbursed medical costs, and work-related childcare. Beyond that, expenses like private school, extracurriculars, travel sports, and college vary by state and by agreement, some states’ courts can order them, others leave them to what parents negotiate.

A practical note from years of watching this: the fights are rarely about the base amount, which the formula settles. They’re about the extras, the travel team fee, the orthodontist, the summer camp. A well-drafted order that spells out how extras get approved, split, and reimbursed prevents a decade of small wars. Precision now is peace later.

Establishing. Support is set as part of a divorce, custody, or paternity case. It runs on the guideline math, applied to verified, sometimes hard-won, income information.

Modifying. Orders are built on a snapshot of life, and life doesn’t hold still. When circumstances change substantially, a job loss, a real income jump, a shift in the parenting schedule, a change in the child’s needs, either parent can seek modification. Two rules save people enormous grief here. First, modification generally runs forward from the date you file, not the date life changed, so waiting is expensive. Second, only a court order changes the obligation. The handshake deal to pay less “for now” is unenforceable, and years later the unpaid difference can come due as arrears. Get changes in writing and entered. Every time. Our Modifications page goes deeper.

Enforcing. Support orders are court orders, and they have teeth: income withholding, tax refund interception, license suspension, liens, and contempt proceedings for willful nonpayment. If support isn’t being paid, document it and act; arrears compound and rarely resolve themselves. And if you’re the parent who can’t pay, the answer is the same in reverse: move for modification immediately, because silence plus nonpayment reads as willful, and unpaid support generally cannot be erased retroactively.

“If I don’t get my parenting time, I can stop paying.” No. Support and parenting time are separate obligations. Each is enforced on its own. Withholding one because of the other puts you in violation, full stop.

“Equal parenting time means no support.” Not necessarily. Most states’ formulas account for parenting time, and a 50-50 schedule often lowers support, but income differences between the parents usually mean some support still flows. The formula, not folklore, decides.

“My new spouse’s income will be grabbed.” Generally, no. Support obligations belong to parents. Remarriage can matter indirectly in some states and situations, but the working rule is that stepparent income isn’t in the formula.

“We can just agree to whatever number we want.” Partly true. Parents can agree, and courts respect reasonable agreements. But support belongs to the child, so courts review agreements against the guidelines, and a deal that shortchanges the child won’t be approved. Agree away from the guideline only with your eyes open and the reasons documented.