Mississippi Child Support Calculator

Mississippi child support is a percentage of the paying parent’s monthly income after taxes and a few required deductions. Mississippi calls that income “adjusted gross income.” The percentage is 14% for one child, 20% for two, 22% for three, 24% for four, and 26% for five or more.

Unless the parents split time equally, the other parent’s income doesn’t change these amounts, so the table sets it to $0. Each row turns weekly pay into monthly pay (× 52 ÷ 12), then subtracts estimated income taxes and Social Security and Medicare to get adjusted gross income, the same way the calculator above does. Neither the table nor the calculator above subtracts retirement contributions your job requires, which Mississippi also subtracts. If you pay them (most public employees do), your amount will be a little lower. The percentages are in Mississippi Code §43-19-101(1).

Mississippi uses a percentage of income formula. It starts with the paying parent’s income from all sources, subtracts taxes and a few other required deductions, and multiplies what is left by the percentage for the number of children. The other parent’s income doesn’t count unless the parents split time equally.

The steps are in Mississippi Code §43-19-101(3):

1. Add up yearly income from all sources: wages, self-employment, commissions, investments, benefits like disability or unemployment, and alimony received. A new spouse’s income doesn’t count.
2. Subtract the required deductions: federal, state, and local income taxes the parent actually owes (extra withholding doesn’t count), Social Security and Medicare, required retirement and disability contributions, and court-ordered support paid for other children. A judge can also subtract an amount for other children who live with the parent.
3. Divide by 12 to get monthly adjusted gross income.
4. Multiply by the percentage for the number of children.

Example

The paying parent has one child, who lives with the other parent. After taxes and required deductions, the paying parent’s income (adjusted gross income) is $4,000 a month. 14% of $4,000 is $560 a month, whatever the other parent earns.

Yes, but only when the parents have joint custody and split time equally. Under a rule in effect since July 1, 2026, Mississippi figures the guideline amount for each parent, and the parent with the higher income pays the difference. With any schedule short of equal time, nights the children spend with the paying parent don’t lower support. For example, with one child and adjusted gross incomes (income after taxes and required deductions) of $4,000 and $2,000 a month, the higher earner pays $560 a month with any schedule short of equal time, even 45%, and $280 a month at equal time.

In the example, the higher earner’s guideline amount is $560 and the other parent’s is $280, so the higher earner pays the $280 difference. When incomes are equal, the two amounts cancel out and neither parent pays. The rule is in Mississippi Code §93-5-24(2)(c), and a judge can order something else when that is better for the children.

The same law makes joint custody with equal time the starting point for first custody orders entered after July 1, 2026. A judge can order a different schedule for reasons such as an agreement between the parents, family violence, or substance abuse. It doesn’t apply to changing an existing custody order. See §93-5-24(2).

Without equal time, a judge can still lower support when the paying parent has the children a lot of the time. §43-19-103 lists this as one reason a judge can order a different amount.

Mississippi doesn’t add child care to the percentage. A judge can order more than the guideline amount when the parent the children live with pays for child care to work or look for work, or because that parent has a disability.

Child care is one of the reasons for a different amount listed in Mississippi Code §43-19-103. Bring proof of the actual costs to court.

Every Mississippi order must include medical support. The judge looks at what coverage each parent can get and what it costs, decides who provides it, and sets how medical bills are paid if no reasonable coverage is available.

• Coverage: if the judge has the parent the children live with provide the insurance, the judge considers that cost when setting the support amount, under Mississippi Code §43-19-101.
• Reasonable cost: MDHS treats coverage for the children as affordable when adding them costs no more than 5% of the gross income (pay before taxes) of the parent who would provide it, under its child support policy manual.
• Uncovered bills: the order says who pays them. Large medical, dental, or psychological costs are also a reason for a different amount.

If you get TANF (Mississippi’s cash assistance), you have to help MDHS get child support from the other parent, and the support goes to the state except up to $100 a month that is passed on to you. Food stamps (SNAP) have the same requirement.

• TANF: up to $100 of the support collected each month goes to your family, whatever the number of children, and doesn’t lower TANF, according to MDHS. It can count as income for SNAP.
• Food stamps (SNAP): the parent the children live with has to help MDHS (for example, by naming the other parent), and a paying parent who doesn’t help or falls behind on support can lose SNAP, under MDHS’s Notice of Child Support Enforcement.

If helping could put you or your children in danger, you can ask to be excused (MDHS calls this “good cause”). The Mississippi child support guide has more on cash assistance and child support.

When the paying parent’s adjusted gross income is under $10,000 a year, the judge must decide in writing whether the percentage is reasonable and consider that parent’s basic living needs. Mississippi has no set minimum order.

• Under $10,000 a year: the percentage still gives a starting amount, and the judge decides whether it is reasonable. For one child and adjusted gross income of $700 a month, the starting amount is $98 a month. The rule is in Mississippi Code §43-19-101(4).
• Earning less than they could: a judge can base support on what a parent could earn. The judge has to rely on facts about that parent, like work history, skills, health, and local jobs, under §43-19-101(5).

No. The percentage applies at every income. Above $100,000 a year in adjusted gross income, the judge must decide in writing whether the percentage is reasonable.

For example, a paying parent with one child and adjusted gross income of $10,000 a month pays $1,400 a month. The rule that the judge must decide in writing is in Mississippi Code §43-19-101(4).

Yes. The judge starts by assuming the guideline amount is correct. The judge can order a different amount after explaining, in writing or out loud in court, why the guideline amount would be unfair to this family.

Reasons the law lists include large medical, educational, or dental costs, the child’s own income, seasonal changes in income, older children’s greater needs, the parenting arrangement, child care, and both parents’ assets. See Mississippi Code §43-19-103.

Ask MDHS to review your order, or file a petition to change it in chancery court. MDHS reviews an order every three years on request, or sooner after a big change. Only a court order changes the amount, so keep following the current order until it does.

• Every three years: either parent can ask for a review without showing that anything changed. To ask sooner, you need a big change in your situation, under Mississippi Code §43-19-34.
• Through MDHS: send in the review questionnaire for your side of the case, linked on MDHS’s child support page.

The Mississippi child support guide walks through each step.

Not one the public can use. MDHS’s calculator page is password protected, so the guideline statute and its percentages are the official reference.

The MDHS calculator page asks for a password. Judges work from the guideline statute, §43-19-101, and the parents’ financial statements.