Family & Legal

Child Support Estimator (Income Shares)

Estimates guideline child support using the income-shares model. The non-custodial parent owes their proportional share of the basic obligation, adjusted for parenting time.

Income-shares in one minute

The model treats child support as an obligation both parents share, proportional to their incomes. Each state publishes a schedule of basic obligations for combined parental income and number of children.

support = BCSO × payer's_income_share
        ± parenting_time_adjustment
        + health_insurance_share

Parenting-time adjustment

Most states reduce the obligor's payment when they have the child for a significant number of overnights. Reductions typically begin at ~20% of overnights and increase up to shared-parenting thresholds.

States using income-shares

~40 states including CA, NY, TX, IL, PA, OH, GA, NC, MI, NJ, VA, WA, CO, AZ, MN, WI, MA, MD, IN, TN, MO, CT, OR, IA, KS, NE, NV, NM, RI, VT, WV, WY, ME, NH, ID, MT, DC, DE, HI, AK. (FL, TX use variations; a few use percentage-of-income.)

Deep dive

Income-shares model explained

Read guide