Texas Child Support Calculator: How the Math Works

By Wendi R. Bailes-Dodson

A Texas child support calculator turns one parent’s monthly net resources and the number of children in the order into a guideline estimate. It is a starting number, not the order a judge will sign. The official tool from the Office of the Attorney General says the court amount can differ, and it only estimates a single source of income.

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Texas Family Code section 154.125 sets the percentages most people mean when they search for the calculator. When monthly net resources reach one thousand dollars, and stay at or under the published cap, one child is 20 percent. Two children are 25 percent, three are 30 percent, four are 35 percent, and five are 40 percent. Six or more children are not less than the five-child amount. A lower schedule applies below one thousand dollars a month. Effective September 1, 2025, those percentages apply only to the first $11,700 of monthly net resources.

What a Texas Child Support Calculator Actually Estimates

The Attorney General monthly calculator asks for income and a few deductions. Those include health and dental premiums for the children, union dues, state income tax, and how many children under 18 are in the order. It then applies the guideline percentage to net resources.

That design answers a narrow question: what does the percentage schedule produce from these inputs? It does not decide custody, possession time, or whether a parent can actually pay the result. It also does not add every cost a child has. Medical and dental support are usually ordered on top of the cash guideline amount.

Use the estimate to prepare. Bring pay stubs, tax returns, and proof of the premiums and dues you claim. Do not treat the printout as the number you must pay, or the number you will receive, until a court or a signed agreement says so.

Step 1: Count the Income the Statute Calls Resources

Texas Family Code section 154.062 tells the court what to include. Resources are broader than a W-2 wage.

The statute includes all of the following:

• 100 percent of wages, salary, commissions, overtime, tips, and bonuses.
• Interest, dividends, and royalty income.
• Self-employment income.
• Net rental income, after operating expenses and mortgage payments. Depreciation, a noncash item, is not deducted.
• Other income actually received, including severance pay, retirement, pensions, trust income, annuities, capital gains, and unemployment.
• Social Security benefits other than Supplemental Security Income, and most veterans disability benefits. A non-service-connected disability pension, as defined in federal law, is excluded.
• Disability and workers’ compensation benefits, interest on notes, gifts and prizes, spousal maintenance, and alimony.

A few items are not resources. Return of principal or capital, accounts receivable, TANF and other federal public assistance, and foster-care payments stay out. If money is not actually being received, it generally is not plugged into the calculator just because it appears on a projection.

Self-employment is where estimates go wrong. The calculator is built around one income source. Business owners still have to separate money the business earned from money the parent actually took. A judge can look past an artificially low draw. That review is case-specific, so the online tool will not do it for you.

Step 2: Subtract Only the Allowed Deductions

Net resources are not take-home pay. Section 154.062(d) allows a short list of deductions, and the calculator follows that list.

• Social Security taxes.
• Federal income tax, figured as if the parent were single, claimed one personal exemption, and took the standard deduction. Married status and extra dependents do not lower the number the way they might on a real paycheck.
• State income tax, if the parent pays it. Texas has no personal income tax, so this box is often zero.
• Union dues.
• The cost of health insurance, dental insurance, or cash medical support for the child, when the court orders it.
• Nondiscretionary retirement contributions, and only when the parent does not pay Social Security taxes and the job requires the contribution.

A 401(k) deferral that the parent chooses does not come off the top. Rent, car notes, credit cards, and groceries do not either. Those bills matter to a family budget. They are not guideline deductions.

Health and dental premiums have a sharing rule. If the same plan covers other minor dependents, divide the parent’s total premium by the number of minor dependents on the plan, including the child in this order. Only that share is deducted. The rest of the premium stays inside net resources.

Step 3: Apply the Percentage for These Children

After net resources are set, multiply by the percentage for the children before the court. The standard schedule in section 154.125 is below. It applies when monthly net resources are at least $1,000 and not above the cap.

An example makes the shape clear, not a prediction. If monthly net resources are four thousand dollars and one child is before the court, 20 percent is eight hundred dollars. Two children in that same order would be 25 percent, or one thousand dollars. Add a second household and this example no longer applies. Children the parent already supports under another order use the alternative method in section 154.129, which lowers the percentage instead of stacking a full second schedule on top.

The count is children in the order, not every child the parent has ever supported in cash. A child who has aged out, or who lives in another order, changes the math. So does a new child before the court. Possession schedules and which parent is the primary conservator are related, but they are not a line on this percentage table. Custody questions belong on the child custody page, not inside the calculator.

Low Income and the $11,700 Cap

Two edges of the schedule surprise people who only remember 20 percent.

If monthly net resources are under one thousand dollars, section 154.125(c) uses a lower grid. One child is 15 percent. Two children are 20 percent, three are 25 percent, four are 30 percent, and five are 35 percent. Six or more are not less than the five-child amount. The Attorney General calculator applies that low-income grid in cases filed on or after September 1, 2021. It exists so a very small paycheck is not pushed through the standard percentages.

At the other end, the guidelines stop at a published dollar cap. The Title IV-D agency adjusts that cap every six years for inflation and announces it in the Texas Register. The August 15, 2025 notice set the figure at $11,700 of monthly net resources, effective September 1, 2025. The prior published amount was $9,200. The official calculator stops at $11,700 and says it will not compute support above that line. Section 154.125 is the statute that requires that published cap.

Income above the cap is not ignored. Section 154.126 allows additional support based on the children’s proven needs, without an automatic percentage on the extra dollars. A parent who earns well above the cap still needs evidence of need, not a bigger default percent. The calculator will not invent that second number.

Why the Court Order Can Differ from the Estimate

Guidelines are a presumption, not a ceiling or a floor in every case. The Family Code lets a court vary from them when the evidence supports a different amount. The calculator cannot see that evidence.

Common reasons the signed order does not match the printout:

• The income proof was incomplete, or overtime and bonuses were left out.
• The parent has children in more than one household, so section 154.129 applies.
• Health or dental insurance was ordered, and only the child’s share of the premium was deductible.
• Net resources sit above $11,700, and the court is looking at proven needs.
• A parent is intentionally underemployed, or self-employment records do not match deposits.
• The child has expenses the basic percentage was never built to cover, and a party asks the court to consider them.

Medical and dental support sit beside the cash amount. The premium deduction reduces net resources before the percentage runs. It does not replace the percentage. Parents sometimes subtract the whole premium and then subtract it again from the result. That double count is not what the statute describes.

An existing order is a different problem from a first calculation. Changing it has its own tests, including a guideline gap and a material change in circumstances. Those steps live in our article on how to modify a child support order. This page stops at how the estimate is built.

How to Read Your Result before You Rely on It

Run the official calculator once with documents in hand, then check the result against the statute rather than against a blog chart. Work in this order:

1. List every resource from section 154.062, including overtime, bonuses, and benefits that are easy to forget.
2. Subtract only the allowed deductions, using the single-with-one-exemption tax assumption.
3. Confirm the child count is the children in this order, and note any other support order.
4. See whether net resources fall under one thousand dollars, inside the standard band, or above $11,700.
5. Write down the cash estimate, then list medical and dental support separately.
6. Compare the figure with any current order before you assume it should change.

If two parents disagree about a line item, the calculator will not settle it. Pay stubs, tax returns, and plan invoices are what a court uses. A Houston family still has to file in the right court and serve the other parent. The child support practice page describes how Dodson Law Firm handles that work. The family law overview covers the rest of a suit affecting the parent-child relationship, including custody and visitation, which this math does not decide.

Call Dodson Law Firm at 713-338-2525 to review a calculator result before you treat it as the order.

FAQ: Texas Child Support Calculator

How do I calculate child support in Texas?

Add the paying parent’s monthly resources, subtract the deductions in Family Code section 154.062, and apply the section 154.125 percentage for the number of children in the order. The Attorney General calculator does that arithmetic for a single income source. A judge can still set a different figure.

How much do most parents pay in child support in Texas?

There is no single typical payment. One child is presumptively 20 percent of monthly net resources when those resources are at least one thousand dollars and not above $11,700. Two children are 25 percent. The dollar result moves with income, deductions, other households, and whether the court varies from the guidelines.

What changed in the Texas child support rules for 2025?

Effective September 1, 2025, the guideline cap rose to $11,700 of monthly net resources. The Office of the Attorney General published that adjustment in the Texas Register on August 15, 2025. The percentage schedule itself, 20 percent for one child through 40 percent for five, did not change in that notice.

What is the maximum income for child support in Texas?

The guidelines are designed for monthly net resources up to $11,700. That is a cap on the income the percentage schedule automatically covers, not a cap on what a parent can be ordered to pay. Above that line, additional support depends on the children’s proven needs under section 154.126.

Who pays child support in a 50/50 schedule in Texas?

Equal time does not automatically cancel support. The guideline percentage still looks at the obligor’s net resources and the children in the order. A court can assign the payment to either parent and can vary the amount. Possession time is part of the broader custody case, not a switch that turns the calculator off.

This article explains the public guideline math. It is not legal advice, and it is not a substitute for advice about your income, your other orders, or your children. Family law matters are not handled on a no-fee-unless-recovery basis. Bring the calculator printout, your pay records, and any existing order if you want those inputs checked against the statute before you rely on the estimate.