How to read a child support worksheet

A child support worksheet is the guidelines written out as arithmetic. Each line takes a number from a line above it, from the parents’ information or from the state’s schedule, and the last line is the guideline amount. Federal rules require guidelines based on specific descriptive and numeric criteria that result in a computation, and the worksheet is where that computation happens.

Worksheets look intimidating because they cover every situation a state’s guidelines handle. Most families use only some of the lines. Once you see the pattern, any state’s form becomes readable. This guide walks through one official worksheet with a computed example, then covers the mistakes that most often throw the result off.

The pattern most worksheets follow

Most states use the income shares model, including 41 of the states this site covers, and their worksheets share a structure:

• Income. Each parent’s income, then subtractions such as support paid for other children or spousal support paid.
• Combined income and shares. The two adjusted incomes are added, and each parent’s percentage of the total is worked out.
• Basic obligation. The combined income and the number of children are looked up in the state’s schedule.
• Add-ons. Work-related child care, the children’s health insurance and sometimes other costs are added.
• Each parent’s share. The total is split by income share.
• Credits and adjustments. The paying parent gets credit for costs they pay directly and, in many states, for parenting time. Low-income rules are checked.
• Result. The presumed child support amount.

States using a percentage of income or the Melson formula have different middle sections, but the same idea: income in, guideline amount out, every step on its own line.

A worked example: the Missouri Form 14

Missouri uses Form 14, the Child Support Amount Calculation Worksheet, under § 452.340 RSMo, which requires the Supreme Court of Missouri to set guidelines with “specific, descriptive and numeric criteria which will result in a computation of the support obligation.” The state’s child support agency, the Missouri Family Support Division, uses the same form when it sets an order for a parent who applies for child support.

Take two children who live mainly with Parent B. Parent A earns $60,000 a year and has the children every other weekend. Parent B earns $40,000 a year, pays $400 a month for work-related child care and $200 a month for the children’s health insurance. This is the form as the engine fills it in:

Line by line

Income (lines 1 to 3). Missouri starts from gross monthly income, so Parent A’s line shows $5,000.00 a month. The lines in between subtract support paid under other orders, maintenance paid and an allowance for other children living in the parent’s home. None applies here, so adjusted income equals gross income, and the combined adjusted income is $8,333.00 a month.

Shares (line 4). Parent A earns 60% of the combined income. That percentage drives most of what follows. Missouri rounds it to the nearest tenth of a percent.

Basic amount (line 5). This is the schedule figure for the combined income and two children: $1,845.00 a month. It is an estimate of what parents at that income level spend on children, before child care and health insurance.

Add-ons (lines 6a(2) to 7). Parent B’s child care is reduced first by the child care tax credit Parent B can claim, here $88.00 a month, leaving $312.00 a month. Missouri applies the credit for children under 13. The health insurance premium for the children is added in full. Together the add-ons come to $512.00 a month.

Total and shares (lines 8 and 9). The basic amount plus add-ons gives total support costs of $2,357.00 a month. Parent A’s share of that total is $1,414.00 a month. Parent B’s share stays with Parent B, who has the children most of the time and pays the add-ons directly.

Credits (line 11). If Parent A had paid any add-ons, a credit would appear on the line before this one. Here the credit is for overnights: every other weekend earns Parent A a credit of $111.00 a month. Missouri’s credit is a percentage of the basic amount that rises with overnights, starting at 36 overnights a year. The parenting time calculator counts overnights from a schedule.

Result (line 12). The presumed child support amount is $1,303.00 a month, paid by Parent A. Missouri also runs a second calculation when the paying parent’s income falls in the shaded low-income part of the schedule and uses the lower result. Parent A’s income is above that range, so the regular figure stands.

The same family without child care or insurance would have a guideline amount of $996 a month. The add-ons explain the whole difference, which is why they are worth getting right.

Common mistakes

Most disputes about a worksheet come down to a handful of errors.

• The wrong period. A form that asks for monthly income needs annual pay divided by twelve, and weekly pay multiplied by the number of weeks in a year and then divided by twelve, not by four. The income converter does this for you.
• Gross where the form wants net, or the reverse. Some states start from gross income and some from a defined net income; check the first line’s label.
• Leaving out income. Bonuses, overtime, self-employment income and some benefits count in most states. The guide to what counts as income covers the rules.
• The whole family’s insurance premium. Only the part that covers the children in the case belongs on the add-on line.
• Child care before credits. In states like Missouri, child care is reduced by a tax credit first; in others, it is added at cost. The guide to child care costs compares them.
• Miscounted overnights. Parenting-time credits depend on the number of overnights a year in the order, not on a rough sense of who has the children more.
• An outdated form or schedule. States revise their guidelines. Use the version in force when support is set, which this site’s calculator states at the top of every result.

Reading any state’s worksheet

The labels differ, and some states add steps for shared custody or low incomes, but the order rarely does: income, shares, schedule, add-ons, credits, result. Legal terms appear on many forms, such as “obligor” for the paying parent and “obligee” for the receiving parent; the federal glossary of child support terms explains them.

Every result in the child support calculator has a worksheet view with the state’s official line numbers and labels, filled in with your figures, so you can lay it next to the official form and check each line. The worksheet gives the guideline amount; courts can deviate from it, as the guide to deviating from the guidelines explains.