Utah Child Support Calculator

It depends on both parents’ income before taxes, the number of children, and how many overnights each parent has. For example, if you earn $4,333 a month, the other parent earns $3,000, and the children live mostly with the other parent, you would pay about $522 a month for one child or $841 for two.

The table assumes neither parent pays support or alimony from an earlier case. The parenting schedule doesn’t change these amounts until each parent has at least 111 overnights a year. At the lowest incomes, Utah’s low income table keeps the amount down. Utah’s table of base support for both parents together is in Utah Code 81-6-304.

Utah uses an income shares formula, so both parents’ incomes count. It adds the parents’ monthly incomes before taxes, looks up base support in the state’s table, and splits it by each parent’s share of the income. The custody arrangement then decides who pays and whether overnights lower the amount.

The rules are in Utah Code 81-6-204:

1. Find each parent’s adjusted income. Start with income before taxes from all sources, counting no more than one full-time job, under 81-6-203. Subtract child support and alimony the parent was ordered to pay in earlier cases and actually pays.
2. Add the two incomes.
3. Look up the base support for that combined income and the number of children.
4. Split it by each parent’s share of the income. A parent with 60% of the combined income owes 60%.
5. Apply the rule for your custody arrangement: sole custody (the low income table and $30 minimum), joint physical custody (the overnight credit), or split custody (each parent has at least one of the children living with them).
6. Add child care and health costs, split equally.

Example

One parent earns $4,000 a month and the other $2,000, so their combined income is $6,000. The base support for one child at that income is $745. The higher earner has 66.7% of the income, so with fewer than 111 overnights a year, they pay about $497 a month.

It can, once each parent has at least 111 overnights a year (30%). From that point each added overnight lowers support, and each night above 130 lowers it more. With one child and gross pay of $4,000 and $2,000 a month, the higher earner pays about $497 a month with fewer than 111 overnights, about $477 at 120, about $357 at 146 (40%), and about $131 at 50/50.

Joint physical custody means each parent has the children for more than 30% of the overnights (at least 111 a year) and both pay for the children’s expenses beyond support, under Utah Code 81-9-101. The parent with fewer overnights gets a credit of 0.27% of base support for each night from 111 to 130, and 0.84% for each night over 130. If the credit is bigger than that parent’s share, the other parent pays instead.

When parents split time equally, Utah counts the parent with the lower income as having 183 overnights, so the higher earner pays. The rules are in Utah Code 81-6-206.

In sole custody, support for a child drops 25% when the child stays with the paying parent for at least 12 days in a 30-day stretch, and 50% for at least 25 of the 30 days, under Utah Code 81-6-211. Regular parent-time and holidays don’t count.

Parents split reasonable child care costs they have because of work equally, half each, whatever their incomes. The parent who pays the provider gets half back from the other parent.

For example, if child care costs $600 a month, each parent pays $300. A parent must give the other proof of the cost and the provider’s name. For orders made or changed on or after January 1, 2027, the paying parent also pays a small set amount toward child care (the minimal child care award) until each child turns 13. The amount depends on the parents’ combined income and each child’s age. It doesn’t apply to a parent who pays under the low income table. See Utah Code 81-6-209.

Every Utah order must require health insurance for the children when it is available at a reasonable cost. Parents split the cost of covering the children equally. They also split medical and dental bills insurance doesn’t cover equally.

For example, if the children’s part of the premium is $200 a month, each parent pays $100. Copays, coinsurance, and deductibles are split the same way. A judge can split costs differently for a good reason, or when the parents agree on who provides coverage. See Utah Code 81-6-208.

Applying for cash assistance (the Family Employment Program) or Medicaid for a child opens a child support case. You then have to work with the Office of Recovery Services to get support from the other parent, unless that could lead to harm to you or your child. Support collected while you get cash assistance repays the state. Applying for food stamps (SNAP) doesn’t open a case.

• Cash assistance and Medicaid: the Office of Recovery Services opens a case automatically when a child is part of the application. While the child gets cash assistance, the right to collect the support belongs to the state.
• Support collected: for now, it repays the state. Starting July 1, 2028, your family will get up to $100 a month of it for one child and $200 for two or more, under 2026 H.B. 248.
• SNAP: applying for SNAP, WIC, or child care help doesn’t start a child support case, according to the Office of Recovery Services.

If working with ORS could lead to physical or emotional harm to you or your child, you can make a “good cause” claim with the Department of Workforce Services. The Utah child support guide covers how this works.

When the children live mostly with one parent (sole custody), a paying parent earning up to $2,450 a month pays their share or the amount in Utah’s low income table for their own income, whichever is lower. In sole custody, support is never less than $30 a month.

• Low income table: if the table lists an amount for the parent’s income, the parent pays the lower of that amount and their regular share. If it doesn’t list one, the regular share applies, under Utah Code 81-6-205 and the low income table in 81-6-305.
• Joint custody: the low income table and the $30 minimum don’t apply. When the base table has no amount for the parents’ income, support is $0, under Utah Code 81-6-206.
• Earning less by choice: a judge can count the income a parent could earn, after a hearing and a written explanation. For a parent with no recent work history, that can be full-time pay at the federal minimum wage, under Utah Code 81-6-203.

No. When the parents together earn more than $100,000 a month, a judge decides support case by case. It can’t be less than the table’s top amount ($5,908 for one child).

At $100,000 combined, the table amount is $8,356 for two children and $9,751 for three. The rule is in Utah Code 81-6-204(8).

Yes. Courts start from the guideline amount, but a judge can order a different amount after finding that it would be unfair or not best for the child.

To decide the amount, the judge looks at each parent’s standard of living, wealth and income, ability to earn, needs, and age, and at support they owe to others. More than six children is also a reason to change the amount. See Utah Code 81-6-202.

Ask the Office of Recovery Services to review your order, or ask the district court to change it. If the order is at least three years old, you can change it when the guideline amount would be 10% higher or lower. Before then, you need a big change in your situation that changes the amount by 15%.

• When: a big change includes a change in custody, a 30% change in a parent’s income, or a change in the child’s medical needs. Changes expected to last less than a year don’t count.
• Through ORS: either parent can ask for a review in writing.

The rules are in Utah Code 81-6-212. The Utah child support guide walks through each step.

Yes. The Office of Recovery Services has an online Child Support Calculator that also fills in the court worksheets.

Use the ORS Child Support Calculator, or the printable sole, joint, and split custody worksheets on ORS’s Calculate Child Support page.