Child support in Texas is always about meeting the child’s needs while being fair to both parents. Texas law sets out some guidelines and percentages for how support should be calculated, but be aware that the courts will always take the best interests of the child under consideration first. This means that the court can adjust those guidelines if they think that they are unreasonable in some way.

How Is Child Support in Texas Calculated?

General Guidelines

In general, if there is just one child in need of support, the paying parent will be obliged to give 20% of their net resources in child support. For two children, that becomes 25%. For three children it is 30%, for four children it is 35%, for five children it is 40%, and for six or more children the rule is simply “not less than the amount for five children.”

If the paying parent has less than $1,000 a month in net resources, however, those percentages go down by 5% across-the-board. At the same time, if the paying parent’s resources are particularly large (over $9,200 a month), the court will usually apply a lower maximum-per-month figure calculated only against a percentage of the parent’s resources. If a child is disabled, however, and has special expenses and needs, the court will typically calculate from the full income in that case, even if it exceeds the threshold of $9,200.

If the Paying Parent Has Other Children

If the paying parent has other children, then the percentages go down. For example, if the paying parent is paying child support for one child but has another child at home, the amount of child support required goes from 20% of net income to 17.5%. For two children at home, it would go down to 16%. These calculations can become quite complicated, but your family law attorney can help you understand what you owe or are owed, depending on your situation and your children’s needs.

Understanding “Net Resources”

The term “net resources” refers to how much money the paying parent has once certain obligations are deducted. In other words, these percentages do not apply to the base take-home pay a parent might have.

First, the court will look at the full financial situation of the paying parent, including their wages or salary, any earnings they have from self-employment or gig work, anything they receive from rental properties, Social Security payouts, royalties, bonuses, overtime pay, dividends or capital gains, worker’s compensation or unemployment benefits, disability benefits, commissions, pensions, any payouts from a trust or inheritance, spousal support they may be receiving, etc. While there are a few things that the court will not look at, you can expect the court to be fully aware that some people attempt to do things such as structure a business to hide income and avoid child support obligations.

Once the court knows clearly exactly how much income there is, some of that money is deducted from the calculation to determine the net resources of the paying parent. For example, taxes are a required expense and thus are not calculated as part of net resources. The same is true of any child payments being made for other children, payments for insurance that covers the children, union dues, and certain retirement contributions. Only after all of these things have been deducted will you have your “net resources” number.

Child Needs

While the percentages given above provide the baseline calculations, the court will take a look at whether a child has specific needs and how they are being met in making the final calculations.

When Parents Have Joint Custody

Child support typically assumes that the noncustodial parent is paying the parent with custody, but what happens when parents have joint custody? In this case, if the parents have 50/50 custody, child support is not off the table, but it will be determined on a case-by-case basis. There are no specific guidelines in the law, so it will be up to the court to decide in the best interests of the child.

It’s fairly common for a higher earning parent to still have to pay some support to a lower earning parent, and the justification for this is that the court will want the children to have a similar experience of life regardless of which parent they are living with. If there’s too great a disparity between the parents, it can drive a wedge between the children and one of their parents.

At other times, the court will actually require both parents to pay child support. This would be calculated based on the net resources of both parents, and the idea is to create an “offset” where financial obligations are evenly divided. Finally, even if both parents have similar financial situations and 50/50 joint custody, there are still situations where the court might order child support. This usually occurs when there is a special situation with one of the parents that has to be addressed. For example, if one of the parents does not have a driver’s license and has to pay extra for transportation, child support might be ordered to help offset this expense.

Other Important Information About Child Support in Texas

Can Dad’s Get Child Support?

Yes! Texas assumes that both parents are equally capable of caring for their children and equally capable of earning money. This means there is no guarantee that mom will have custody and dad will not; there is also no guarantee that only fathers will have to pay child support.

The standard is always and only the best interest of the child, and this is always figured in the context of the resources that both parents bring to the table.

What Happens When There’s a Job Loss?

It’s a very good question: how does child support change if one of the parents loses their job? If it is the paying parent who loses their job, so long as the situation is temporary and the court is convinced that the parent is honestly seeking employment, child support payments may be paused or lowered.

However, if the court suspects the parent is trying to avoid their obligations, it will sometimes modify the existing orders to require payments based on what it assumes is the paying parent’s earning potential rather than what they are actually bringing in. Additionally, a paying parent cannot get out of child support by just not working and gathering income from other sources. The court will calculate child support payments that include all money coming in from unemployment benefits, disability benefits, worker’s compensation, lottery winnings, freelance gigs, severance packages, or settlements after a personal injury or other lawsuit.

When Do Payments Stop?

In most cases, child support payments will automatically stop when a child turns 18, graduates from high school, or joins the military. There are a few exceptions, such as if the child is disabled.

For help in understanding how the Texas courts are likely to calculate child support in your family’s situation and present the best case for your needs, talk to us at the Eggleston Law Firm, PC
in Spicewood, Austin, and San Marcos, TX today.