How Alabama Calculates Child Support Under Rule 32

By the FigureMyTax Editorial Team · How we calculate

Alabama uses the income shares model. The court adds both parents’ monthly adjusted gross income, finds the basic obligation in the Schedule of Basic Child-Support Obligations, adds child care and health-care coverage costs, divides the total by each parent’s share of the income, and credits the paying parent for costs he or she already pays.

Step 1: Adjusted gross income (Lines 1–2)

Start with each parent’s monthly gross income. Rule 32(C)(1) defines adjusted gross income as gross income less preexisting child support and less preexisting periodic alimony actually paid. The two adjusted incomes are then added together; that combined figure is what you take to the schedule. What counts as gross income, and when a court may impute income to a parent who could earn more, is explained in what income counts for Alabama child support.

Step 2: Percentage shares (Line 3)

Each parent’s share is that parent’s adjusted income divided by the combined adjusted income. Under Rule 32(C)(3), all dollar amounts are rounded to the nearest dollar and all percentages to the nearest 1%, so incomes of $4,800 and $3,200 give shares of 60% and 40%.

Step 3: The basic obligation from the schedule (Line 4)

Find the combined adjusted income in the Schedule of Basic Child-Support Obligations and read across to the number of children. The schedule covers $0 to $30,000 a month for one to six children. A combined income between two rows uses the lower row if it is less than halfway and the higher row if it is halfway or more (Rule 32(C)(1)). For $8,000 of combined income and two children, the basic obligation is $1,519. Above $30,000 the amount is left to the court’s discretion and is not extrapolated.

Steps 4–5: Child care and health-care coverage (Lines 5–7)

Work-related child care that a parent pays because of employment or a job search is added to the basic obligation, up to the amount needed for licensed care under a schedule kept by the Alabama Department of Human Resources (Rule 32(B)(8)). The cost of health-care coverage for the children is added too, but only the part attributable to the children: the total cost the parent actually pays is divided by the number of people covered and multiplied by the number of children covered (Rule 32(B)(7)(e)). Basic obligation plus these two costs is the total child-support obligation.

Step 6: Split the total and credit what each parent pays (Lines 8–10)

The total is multiplied by each parent’s percentage share. Each parent then subtracts the child-care and health-care costs he or she actually pays (Line 9); the result cannot go below $0. The rule presumes that the custodial parent spends his or her own share directly on the children, so the recommended order is the paying parent’s adjusted figure.

Step 7: The self-support reserve (Lines 11–13)

Rule 32(C)(5) protects the paying parent’s basic needs. Subtract the $981 reserve from that parent’s adjusted gross income and multiply what is left by 85%. The recommended order is the lesser of that figure and the adjusted obligation from Line 10, and if the available amount is less than $50, a $50 minimum order is presumed. For example, if the paying parent earns $1,200 a month and the other parent earns $2,000, with two children, the adjusted obligation is $327 but only $186 is available for support after the reserve, so the recommended order is $186.

A worked example

Parent A pays; Parent B has the two children most of the time, pays $400 a month for work-related child care, and Parent A pays $150 a month for the children’s health-care coverage. Neither parent has preexisting support or alimony.

The Alabama child support calculator reproduces this example when you enter the same numbers, and it matches the court’s own Excel worksheet line for line.

What can change the recommended amount

The result is a rebuttable presumption, not a fixed order. A court can deviate for stated reasons, and the rule separately allows extraordinary medical, dental and educational expenses by agreement or on evidence (Rule 32(C)(4)) and a credit for Social Security or other third-party benefits paid to a child based on the paying parent’s record (Rule 32(B)(9)). If the court orders shared 50% physical custody, a different worksheet applies: see shared 50% custody child support in Alabama.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

• Rule 32, Alabama Rules of Judicial Administration
• Schedule of Basic Child-Support Obligations
• Form CS-42, Child-Support Guidelines worksheet

This is general information, not legal advice. It is based on the cited Alabama statutes, rules and court opinions, and every case turns on its own facts. Confirm how the law applies to your situation with a licensed Alabama attorney.