Iowa Child Support Calculator

It depends on both parents’ incomes, the number of children, and the overnights in your court order. 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 $770 a month for one child and $1,151 for two. Child care and the children’s health care costs are added to that.

To build the table, we convert weekly pay to monthly pay (× 52 ÷ 12) and subtract income taxes figured Iowa’s way and Social Security and Medicare, because Iowa’s schedule works from net income. The first rows fall in Iowa’s low-income range, where support depends mostly on the paying parent’s own income. The amounts stay the same until the paying parent has 11 nights a month (128 a year) in the court order. Iowa’s schedule, which lists the total for both parents together by their combined net income, is in Iowa Court Rule 9.26, with a February 17, 2026 correction to one row.

Iowa uses an income shares formula, which means both parents’ incomes count. It adds both parents’ monthly net incomes (income after taxes), looks up what the state says children cost at that income, and has the paying parent pay their share. Low-income rules and court-ordered overnights can lower it.

The steps are in Iowa Court Rules 9.5 to 9.14:

1. Find each parent’s net income: income from all sources minus income taxes (figured the way the guidelines say), Social Security and Medicare, union dues, and support paid for other children. Public assistance and the earned income tax credit don’t count.
2. Add the two net incomes and look up the schedule amount for the number of children.
3. Split it by income share. A parent with 60% of the combined income owes 60%, unless the low-income rules give less.
4. Adjust for court-ordered overnights or joint physical care.
5. Add health care costs (medical support) and child care.

Example

One parent earns $5,000 a month before taxes and the other $3,000. After taxes figured Iowa’s way, their net incomes are about $4,054 and $2,626, or $6,680 combined. The schedule amount for one child at that income is $1,269 a month. The higher earner has about 61% of the combined income, so with the child living with the other parent, they pay about $770 a month.

Yes, and the change starts before 50/50. Once a court order gives the paying parent at least 128 overnights a year (11 nights a month in the calculator above), their support goes down by 15% to 25%. When a court orders joint physical care (equal time), Iowa uses a separate formula. With one child and gross pay of $5,000 and $3,000 a month, the higher earner pays $770 a month with 10 or fewer nights a month, $655 with 11 or 12, $616 with 13, $578 with 14, and $217 with joint physical care (15 nights a month).

• Overnight credit: 15% at 128 to 147 court-ordered overnights a year, 20% at 148 to 166, and 25% at 167 or more. It can’t bring support below $50 for one child, $75 for two, or $100 for three or more. Not using the ordered time can be a reason to change the order. See Iowa Court Rule 9.9.
• Joint physical care: a court order in which both parents keep a home and share the children’s day-to-day care, under Iowa Code §598.1. Iowa raises the schedule amount by half to cover two homes and splits it by income share. Each parent’s share is set against the other’s, and the parent who owes more pays the difference. The low-income rules don’t apply. See Iowa Court Rule 9.14(3).

The calculator above uses the joint physical care formula when you enter exactly 15 overnights a month.

Iowa adds a separate child care amount to support. It is the paying parent’s share of the child care the other parent pays for so they can work, go to school, or look for work. The amount has a limit based on the paying parent’s income, and it usually ends when the child turns 13.

• Tax credits: Iowa subtracts an estimated 25% for child care tax credits, unless the parent paying for care earns under $3,750 a month gross for one child (more for more children).
• The cap: the add-on can’t be more than half the paying parent’s income after taxes and other deductions, minus the support and health costs they already pay.
• When there’s no add-on: with joint physical care (costs are split another way), when the paying parent’s income is in the schedule’s low-income range, or when the parents agree to pay the provider directly.

See Iowa Court Rule 9.11A.

Every Iowa order covers the children’s health care. A parent puts the children on their health plan when it costs no more than Iowa’s Medical Support Table allows (a chart of what counts as affordable at each income). If neither parent can, a parent pays a set monthly amount toward medical costs instead. The children’s part of the premium is split by each parent’s share of income.

• Affordable coverage: coverage counts as affordable when the children’s part of the premium is no more than the percentage of the parent’s gross income listed in the Medical Support Table (at most 5%).
• Uncovered bills: the parent the children live with pays the first $250 a year per child, up to $800 for all the children, and the parents split the rest by net income. With joint physical care, they split all of it.
• Hawki: when the children are covered by Hawki (Iowa’s health coverage for children), the monthly medical payment is the lower of the Hawki premium and the table amount.

See Iowa Court Rules 9.12 and 9.14(5).

If you get Family Investment Program (FIP) cash assistance, you have to help Child Support Services get support from the other parent, for example by naming them and sharing what you know about them. The support collected repays the state instead of coming to you. Food stamps (SNAP) don’t have this rule in Iowa.

• FIP: if you refuse to help without a good reason, such as a risk of harm to you or your children, your FIP payment drops by 25%, under the FIP eligibility manual.
• What you keep: while you get FIP, Iowa keeps all the support collected to repay the assistance, under 441 IAC 95.23.
• Food stamps (SNAP): Iowa doesn’t cut SNAP over child support, per USDA’s state options report.
• Not income: public assistance doesn’t count as income for support, under Iowa Court Rule 9.5.

The Iowa child support guide covers working with Child Support Services.

When the paying parent’s net income (income after taxes) is $1,250 a month or less, Iowa figures support from their income alone, starting at $50 a month for one child. If their income is a little above that, they pay whichever is lower: the amount for their income alone, or their usual share of the combined amount.

• $1,250 or less (the schedule’s Area A): support is the schedule amount for the paying parent’s income alone. Iowa orders some support however low the income.
• A little above $1,250 (Area B): support is whichever of the two amounts is lower. Area B ends at $1,800 for one child, $2,200 for two, $2,550 for three or four, and $2,650 for five or more.
• SSI: support is $0 when the paying parent’s only income is Supplemental Security Income.
• Earning less by choice: a judge can use income the parent could earn, but only after explaining in writing why their actual income would be unfair. Being in jail or prison doesn’t count as choosing not to work.

See Iowa Court Rules 9.3, 9.4, and 9.11.

No. Above $30,000 a month in combined net income, a judge decides the amount, but it can’t be less than the schedule amount at $30,000, which is $3,509 a month for one child.

The rule is in the notes to the schedule in Iowa Court Rule 9.26.

Yes. A judge can order a different amount after explaining in writing why the guideline amount would be unfair or wrong for the family.

Iowa treats the guideline amount as correct unless a judge finds a reason to change it. A judge can change it when it would be very unfair to a parent or the children, or when the children’s needs or the family’s situation call for it. A judge also reviews any amount the parents agree on. See Iowa Court Rules 9.4, 9.11, and 9.13.

Ask Iowa Child Support Services to review your order, or file a petition to modify it in district court. Keep paying the current order until it changes.

• Through the court: you need a big change in your situation (a “substantial change in circumstances”). If the guidelines now give an amount 10% or more higher or lower than your order, that counts, under Iowa Code §598.21C. Iowa Courts has an interactive form to prepare a modification.
• Through Child Support Services: either parent can ask for a review once every two years. The agency changes the order when the new amount would be more than 20% higher or lower because of a change that has already lasted three months and is expected to last at least three more, under 441 IAC chapter 101.

The Iowa child support guide walks through each step.

Yes. The Iowa Child Support Services Estimator works out income taxes from gross pay and follows the same steps as Iowa’s court worksheets.

The calculator above figures taxes the same way as the Iowa Child Support Services Estimator. In court, each parent files a child support guidelines worksheet from Iowa Court Rule 9.27.