Texas Child Support Guidelines
The Texas Family Code has set guidelines to be followed by a court in determining the amount of child support a parent can be obligated to pay the other parent for support of the child. The guidelines set out a percentage that is applied to the parent’s net resources and allocated to make child support payments. The percentage is based on the number of children that will be supported by the ordered payments. Child support payments are determined from the parent’s monthly net resources, not a parent’s monthly gross resources.
|
Number of Children |
Child Support Amount |
|
1 |
20% of net resources |
|
2 |
25% of net resources |
|
3 |
30% of net resources |
|
4 |
35% of net resources |
|
5 |
40% of net resources |
|
6+ |
Not less than amount for 5 children |
A parent’s annual net resources are not the same as “net income.” Net resources are a combination of several different types of cash-flow an individual may receive. The sources of income that are used to calculate your net resources include wage and salary income, self-employment income, severance pay, retirement pay, social security benefits, unemployment benefits, disability and workers’ compensation benefits, alimony, child support, net rental income, interest income, capital gains, trust distributions, annuity income, gifts and prizes, and any other sources of income. Net resources do not include any return of capital or principal from a note, accounts receivable, welfare benefits, foster-care payments, and any income from another spouse. Federal and state income taxes, social security taxes, union dues, and child’s health insurance must all be subtracted out of the net resources total amount. The resources of a parent are calculated annually and the court has discretion to look at several years of income information of a parent in order to determine the average monthly net resources.
There are also guidelines that are adjusted to parents with multi-families. A multi-family situation would be where one parent has two children from two different other parents and would therefore have the duty to support each of the children from the two different parents. For example, a mother and father have a child together and the father also had a child from a previous marriage. Now the mother and father get divorced and the father is obligated to pay child support for the youngest child and for the child from the previous marriage. The court will take into consideration the father’s support obligation to the child from the previous marriage and adjust the child support amount for the younger child accordingly. The Texas Family Code provides guidelines and other rules to address issues with multi-family situations. All children of a parent are taken into consideration by the court when calculating the amount of a child support order.
Texas Family Code Statutes:
- § 154.001 – Support of Child
- § 154.002 – Child Support Through High School Graduation
- § 154.003 – Manner of Payment
- § 154.004 – Place of Payment
- § 154.006 –Termination of Duty of Support
- § 154.007 – Order to Withhold Child Support From Income
- § 154.008 – Provision for Medical Support
- § 154.061 – Computing Net Monthly Income
- § 154.062 – Net Resources
- § 154.064 – Medical Support for Child Presumptively Provided by Obligor
- § 154.065 – Self-Employment Income
- § 154.066 – Intentional Unemployment or Underemployment
- § 154.121 – Guidelines for the Support of a Child
- § 154.123 – Additional Factors for Court to Consider
- § 154.125 – Application of Guidelines to Net Resources
- § 154.128 – Computing Support in More Than One Household
Reach out to our dedicated team for help understanding what your payments may be in the future.