HOW IS CHILD SUPPORT CALCULATED?
In Texas, the court can order you to pay 20% of your monthly income towards for one child and then an additional 5% of your income for each child after that. However, the cap stops at 40%.
So, depending on the number of children you have, you may end up paying between 20 and 40 percent of your net monthly income. If the parent obligated to pay support has additional children from other relationships, the percentage changes based on the number of children in which the parent has a duty to support.
So how does the court determine your income? There are a couple different ways:
- Your W-2/Taxes:
Your W-2 and taxes can be used to calculate your income by taking the amount you made in the previous year and dividing it by 12 to determine your monthly earnings for the previous year. - Your Paystubs:
You can provide your paystubs from at least 6 months of work and that amount can be added up and then divided by the number of months you provided to get an average monthly income.
If you are a salaried employee, this option would be the most optimal for you when figuring out child support. Salary, hourly pay, bonuses, overtime and commission are also all considered when determining income available for child support purposes.
