Florida Child Support Calculator

It depends on both parents’ incomes, the number of children, and how many nights the children spend with each parent. If you earn $5,000 a month before taxes, the other parent earns $3,000, and the children live with the other parent, you would pay about $729 a month for one child and $1,134 for two. Child care and health insurance costs are added to that.

To build the table, we convert weekly pay to monthly pay (× 52 ÷ 12) and subtract estimated federal income tax and Social Security and Medicare, because Florida’s schedule works from net income. The amounts stay the same while the paying parent has the children up to 5 nights a month. From 6 nights a month, Florida’s time-sharing formula applies (see below). Florida’s schedule, which lists the total for both parents together by their combined net income, is in section 61.30(6) of the Florida Statutes.

Florida uses an income shares formula, which means both parents’ incomes count. It adds both parents’ monthly net incomes (pay after taxes), then looks up what the state says raising children costs at that income. Each parent is responsible for their share of that cost. The parent who has the children fewer nights pays their share to the other parent.

The rules are in section 61.30 of the Florida Statutes:

1. Find each parent’s net income. Start with gross income and subtract income taxes, Social Security and Medicare, required union dues and retirement contributions, the parent’s own health insurance, and court-ordered support the parent actually pays for other children or a former spouse. Florida has no state income tax.
2. Add the two net incomes.
3. Look up the schedule amount for that combined income and the number of children. The schedule runs from $800 to $10,000 a month.
4. Split it by income share. A parent with 60% of the combined income has a 60% share.
5. Add child care and health costs, split the same way.
6. Adjust for time sharing if each parent has at least 73 overnights a year.

Example

One parent earns $4,000 a month before taxes and the other $2,000. After estimated taxes, their net incomes are about $3,396 and $1,847, or $5,243 combined. The schedule amount for one child at that income is $1,031 a month. The higher earner has about 65% of the combined income, so with fewer than 73 overnights a year, they pay about $668 a month.

Yes, once each parent has the children at least 73 overnights a year (20% of the year, or 6 nights a month in the calculator above). With one child and gross pay of $4,000 and $2,000 a month, the higher earner pays $668 a month with 5 or fewer nights a month, $692 with 6, $485 with 10, and $272 at equal time (15 nights a month).

Once each parent has 73 overnights, Florida raises the schedule amount by half (× 1.5) to cover the cost of keeping two homes. Each parent then owes their share of that amount for the time the children spend with the other parent, and the parent who owes more pays the difference. Right at 73 nights, the increase can be larger than the credit for time, so support can go up a little before it goes down, as in the example. The formula is in section 61.30(11)(b) of the Florida Statutes.

Child care a parent needs to work, look for work, or go to school is added to the schedule amount and split by each parent’s share of income. The parent who pays the provider gets credit for what they already pay.

For example, if child care costs $600 a month and you have two thirds of the combined income, your share is $400. If the other parent pays the provider, that $400 is added to what you pay them. The amount counted can’t be more than quality care from a licensed provider would cost, under section 61.30(7) of the Florida Statutes.

Every Florida order must provide health insurance for the children when it is reasonably priced and they can use it where they live. The children’s premium and their medical, dental, and prescription costs that insurance doesn’t pay are split by each parent’s share of income. The parent who pays the premium gets credit for it.

• Reasonable cost: the law treats adding the children as reasonable if it costs no more than 5% of the gross income (pay before taxes) of the parent who provides it, under section 61.13 of the Florida Statutes.
• Uncovered bills: copays, deductibles, and other costs insurance doesn’t pay are split the same way, unless the order has each parent pay a set percentage of those bills directly.
• KidCare: children without other coverage may qualify for Florida KidCare, which includes Medicaid.

If the children live with you and you get Temporary Cash Assistance (Florida’s cash assistance program), you have to help the state get child support from the other parent, for example by naming them and going to paternity tests. The support collected repays the state instead of coming to you. Food stamps (SNAP) also require the parent the children live with to help.

• Temporary Cash Assistance: under Florida’s cash assistance law, if you don’t help the Department of Revenue’s Child Support Program without a good reason, cash assistance stops for your whole family until you do.
• What your family keeps: none of the support collected while you get cash assistance. Florida keeps it to repay the state, up to the assistance paid.
• Food stamps (SNAP): the parent the children live with must help too, and USDA lists Florida as a state that cuts off food assistance for a parent who doesn’t.

If helping could put you or your children in danger, such as a risk of violence, ask to be excused for “good cause.” The Florida child support guide covers what helping involves.

When the paying parent’s net income is under $800 a month (about $866 of wages before taxes), Florida caps support at 90% of what they earn above the federal poverty guideline for one person ($1,330 a month in 2026). Anyone under $800 is below that guideline, so the cap works out to $0, and the calculator above shows $0. A judge can still order a small amount so the parent starts paying.

• Paying parent under $800 net: the 90% cap applies, under section 61.30(6)(a), even when the other parent earns much more.
• Paying parent at $800 net or more: the regular schedule applies, even below the poverty guideline.
• Both parents under $800 net combined: the schedule has no amount, so a judge decides support case by case. The calculator above shows “A judge sets this amount.”
• Earning less by choice: if a parent is out of work or works less than they could by choice, a judge can base support on income they could earn.

No. Above $10,000 a month in combined net income, Florida adds a percentage of the income above $10,000 to the schedule’s top amount, from 5% for one child to 12.5% for six.

The percentages are 5% for one child, 7.5% for two, 9.5% for three, 11% for four, 12% for five, and 12.5% for six, under section 61.30(6)(b).

Yes. After looking at the family’s situation, a judge can order up to 5% more or less than the guideline amount (the amount the formula gives). To change it by more than 5%, the judge must explain in writing why the guideline amount would be unfair.

The 5% rule is in section 61.30(1)(a) of the Florida Statutes. Reasons listed in section 61.30(11)(a) include unusually high medical, educational, or dental costs, the child’s own income, seasonal changes in a parent’s income, the total assets of the parents and the child, and support that would take more than 55% of the paying parent’s gross income.

Ask the Department of Revenue to review your order, or file a petition in circuit court to change it. Keep paying the current order until it changes. A court can usually make the new amount start from the date you filed.

• When: after a lasting change you didn’t choose, like a layoff or a long illness.
• Through the Department of Revenue: if your case is with DOR, either parent can ask for a free review. Within three years of the last order, review, or change, the new amount must differ by at least 15% and $50. After three years, it must differ by at least 10% and $25.
• Through the court: file a Supplemental Petition for Modification of Child Support (Form 12.905(b)) with the clerk in the county where the order was entered. A new guideline amount counts as a reason only if it differs by at least 15% or $50, whichever is more, under section 61.30(1)(b).

The rules are in section 61.14 of the Florida Statutes. The Florida child support guide walks through each step.

No. Florida courts use a paper form, the Child Support Guidelines Worksheet (Form 12.902(e)), filled in with the numbers from each parent’s financial affidavit.

If your case goes to court, the Child Support Guidelines Worksheet (Form 12.902(e)) is what the judge works from.