How is Child Support determined?

Child Support is the legislature's attempt to provide financial balance for children who grow up living with only one parent. All parents have a legal duty to support their children.

Generally, the judge who signs the child support order has broad discretion to determine the amount of child support a parent should pay. The amount of child support ordered should be in the child's best interest. State legislatures have established guidelines to help a judge determine child support. The guidelines are presumed to be in a child's best interest.


For instance, in TEXAS, the guidelines give the court a percentage to apply to a parent's net resources. For a parent who has no other children outside the current court proceedings, the percentage to be applied is as follows:

• 20% for 1 child,
• 25% for 2 children,
• 30% for 3 children,
• 35% for 4 children,
• 40% for 5 or more children.

In cases where the Obligor, or parent who is obligated to pay child support, has other children to support, the percentages are slightly lower.

A court may consider other factors to determine if applying the guidelines would be unjust or inappropriate in a particular case. Those factors may include:


• the child's age and needs;
• the parent's ability to contribute to the child's support;
• any financial resources available for the child support;
• the Obligee's (person receiving child support) net resources and earning potential;
• child care expenses;
• whether either party has actual physical custody of another child;
• the amount of alimony or spousal maintenance;
• the child's educational expenses;
• employee benefits such as housing or a company car;
• health insurance and uninsured medical expenses for the child;
• extraordinary educational, healthcare or other expenses of the child;
• travel expenses incurred to exercise visitation;
• positive or negative cash flow from real or personal property, and assets like businesses or investments;
• any other reason consistent with the best interest of the child,
taking into consideration the circumstances of the parents.

Texas Family Code, Section 154.123.


Information Not Legal Advice. This posting has been prepared for general information purposes only. The information on this web site is not legal advice.

Also, laws vary from state to state, so some information on this web site may not be correct for where you live. Laws also change frequently so the information contained in this web site is not guaranteed to be up to date.