Indiana Child Support Calculator

It depends on both parents’ incomes, the number of children, and how many nights the children spend with the paying parent. If you earn $5,000 a month before taxes, the other parent earns $3,000, and the children spend 8 nights a month with you (close to Indiana’s standard parenting time), you would pay about $542 a month for one child and $810 for two. Child care and health insurance costs are added to that.

Eight nights a month is about 97 overnights a year, close to the 96 to 100 that Indiana’s standard parenting time schedule gives. With 4 or fewer nights a month there is no credit, so the amounts are higher: at $1,000 a week with one child, $646 instead of $472. Indiana’s schedule, which lists the weekly total for both parents together by their combined income, is the Guideline Schedules for Weekly Support Payments.

Indiana uses an income shares formula, which means both parents’ incomes count. It adds both parents’ weekly incomes before taxes and looks up what the state says children cost at that income. Each parent is responsible for a share based on their part of the income, and the paying parent gets a credit for the overnights the children spend with them.

The steps are in Guideline 3 of the Indiana Child Support Guidelines:

1. Find each parent’s weekly gross income from all sources, before taxes. Cash assistance (TANF), SSI, and food stamps (SNAP) don’t count. Taxes are already built into the schedule.
2. Subtract a few deductions: support the parent pays for other children, alimony (spousal maintenance), and an allowance for children from a later relationship.
3. Add the two incomes and find the nearest $10 row in the schedule for the number of children.
4. Add child care and the children’s health insurance, and split the total by income share. A parent with 60% of the combined income has a 60% share.
5. Subtract credits for what the paying parent already pays toward those costs, and for the overnights the children spend with them (the parenting time credit).

Example

One parent earns $4,000 a month before taxes and the other $2,000, or about $1,385 a week combined. The schedule amount for one child at that income is $231 a week. The higher earner has two thirds of the income, so with the child living with the other parent, they pay about $667 a month.

Yes, and it starts well before 50/50. The parent with fewer overnights gets a credit once they have 52 a year (5 nights a month in the calculator above), and the credit grows with more time. With one child and gross pay of $4,000 and $2,000 a month, the higher earner pays about $667 a month with 4 or fewer nights a month, $598 with 5, $520 with 8, and $368 with 12. At equal time (15 nights a month), the amount depends on which parent the judge makes pay for the children’s clothing and school costs, so the calculator shows “A judge sets this amount.”

The credit covers the food and transportation the paying parent pays for during their time, and part of the cost of keeping a second home for the children. Indiana’s standard parenting time schedule comes to about 96 to 100 overnights a year.

At equal time, each parent has about half the overnights (182 or 183 a year). Then the judge makes one parent pay the “controlled expenses” (clothing, school fees and supplies, personal care items) and gives the credit to the other parent. That choice changes the amount a lot, so the calculator above doesn’t pick one. In the example, the higher earner pays about $321 a month if the other parent pays those costs, or $182 if the higher earner does. When the parent with more time earns much more, the credit can mean that parent pays the other. See Guideline 6.

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

For example, if child care costs $600 a month and you have two thirds of the combined income, your share is $400. The cost must be reasonable, and a parent who gets a tax credit for child care should subtract it from the cost. See Guideline 3E.

The court orders one or both parents to insure the children when insurance is available at a reasonable cost. Medicaid or CHIP can count. The cost of insuring the children is split by each parent’s share of the income, and so are medical bills that insurance doesn’t pay.

• Reasonable cost: Indiana assumes insurance is available at a reasonable cost unless a parent shows that the cheapest way to insure the children costs more than 5% of both parents’ combined gross income (income before taxes).
• Premium: only the part of the premium that covers the children is added to the schedule amount, and the parent who pays it gets credit.
• Uncovered bills: copays, deductibles, and other costs insurance doesn’t pay are split by each parent’s share of the income. Send the other parent the paperwork within 30 days, or the cost may not be shared. Over-the-counter items kept at each home are paid by that parent.

See Guideline 7.

If you get cash assistance (TANF), you sign your right to child support over to the state. You also have to help the state collect from the other parent, unless you have a good reason, such as a risk of violence. Support collected while you get TANF pays the state back. Food stamps (SNAP) don’t require this.

• Cash assistance (TANF): to get Indiana TANF, you have to meet the child support requirements. Helping means, for example, naming the other parent and going to paternity tests and court dates.
• Where the support goes: Indiana keeps all of it while you get TANF, up to the assistance paid, and passes none of it on to you. Once TANF ends, current support goes to you first, under the Department of Child Services’ distribution rules.
• Food stamps (SNAP): USDA lists Indiana as a state that doesn’t take away food stamps from parents who don’t help with child support.
• Not income: TANF, SSI, and SNAP don’t count as income for child support, under Guideline 3A.

The Indiana child support guide covers how the child support program works.

Indiana has no set low-income formula or minimum order. When the parents earn less than $100 a week together, a judge decides support based on the family’s situation. For any parent with a very low income, the judge checks that they can still pay for their own basic needs.

• Both parents under $100 a week combined (about $433 a month): the schedule has no amount, so a judge sets support from the facts of the case. The calculator above shows “A judge sets this amount.”
• A paying parent with very little income: the judge looks at their income and living expenses and can order less than the guideline amount, including $0 in some cases.
• Earning less by choice: if a parent chooses not to work or works less than they could, a judge can count the income they could earn instead. A judge shouldn’t assume minimum wage for a parent who can’t earn it.

See Guideline 2 and Guideline 3A.

No. When the parents earn more than $9,200 a week together, Indiana’s schedule uses a percentage of their combined income instead, from 8.1% for one child to 20.4% for eight.

The percentages are 8.1% for one child, 11.4% for two, 13.1% for three, 14.7% for four, 16.2% for five, 17.6% for six, 19.0% for seven, and 20.4% for eight, at the end of the weekly schedule. When a judge also orders temporary alimony, the two together can’t be more than 50% of the paying parent’s weekly income after deductions for other children and alimony, under Guideline 2.

Yes. A judge can order a different amount after explaining in writing why the standard amount from the guidelines would be unfair.

Examples in the guidelines include a parent who pays union dues to keep a job, supports an elderly parent, has unusually high medical costs, or spends a lot on travel for parenting time. Other examples are parents who share the controlled expenses, and children who spend different numbers of nights with the paying parent. See Indiana Child Support Rule 3 and the commentary to Guideline 1.

Ask the court to change the order (this is called a petition to modify), or ask your county prosecutor’s child support office for help. A new amount usually can’t start before the date you filed, so file soon after things change. Keep following the current order until it changes.

• When: you can ask after a big change that is likely to last and makes the order unreasonable. You can also ask when the order is at least 12 months old and the guidelines now give an amount more than 20% different, under Guideline 4.
• Through the prosecutor’s office: if your case is with the county prosecutor’s child support (Title IV-D) office, either parent can ask it to review the order.
• Through the court: Indiana Legal Help has a form to change child support when parents don’t agree, filed with the court that made the order.

The Indiana child support guide walks through each step.

Yes. The Indiana Child Support Calculator, from the Indiana Judicial Branch, works through the same weekly worksheet courts use, including child care, health insurance, and the parenting time credit.

Use the Indiana Child Support Calculator with each parent’s weekly figures. Courts file the results on the Child Support Obligation Worksheet, under the Indiana Child Support Rules and Guidelines.