How Connecticut Calculates Child Support

By the FigureMyTax Editorial Team · How we calculate

Connecticut adds both parents’ net weekly incomes, rounds to ten dollars, reads the basic obligation from a schedule that now runs to $6,000 and applies each parent’s percentage share. A low-income noncustodial parent owes the shaded block amount instead.

Step 1: Net weekly income

Gross income is the average weekly earned and unearned income from all sources before deductions: salary; hourly wages for regular, overtime and additional employment up to 45 total paid hours a week; commissions, bonuses and tips; benefits in place of earned income; pensions; rental income after reasonable expenses; self-employment earnings after business expenses; alimony from a person who is not a party; and other listed items. Net income subtracts federal, state and local income taxes, Social Security and Medicare tax, health insurance premiums for the parent and dependents, union dues, court-ordered alimony and child support for others and the other listed deductions. See what income and deductions count.

Step 2: Is the paying parent a low-income obligor?

Find the block for the noncustodial parent’s own net weekly income, rounded to the nearest ten dollars, and the number of children. If it is in the darker shaded area, that parent is a low-income obligor and the dollar amount in the block is the basic obligation. The shaded area reaches $470 for one child, $550 for two, $610 for three, $680 for four, $750 for five and $830 for six. See low-income obligors.

Step 3: Combined income and the schedule

Otherwise add the parents’ net weekly incomes, round to the nearest ten dollars and find that row in the Schedule of Basic Child Support Obligations for the number of children. The block shows a percentage of combined income and the dollar amount, which is the basic child support obligation for all of the children. The schedule runs from $150 to $6,000.

Step 4: Each parent’s share

Divide each parent’s net weekly income by the combined income, round to a whole percentage and multiply by the basic obligation, rounding to the nearest dollar. The noncustodial parent’s share is the presumptive current support; the custodial parent’s share is presumed spent on the children and is not an order. A Social Security dependency benefit paid on the paying parent’s earnings record is subtracted from the paying parent’s amount.

A worked example

Two children live with their mother. The father’s net weekly income is $1,500 and the mother’s is $1,000.

The Connecticut child support calculator reproduces this example.

What to gather

Pay stubs, tax returns, proof of health insurance premiums and any Social Security dependency benefit statements for both parents. The worksheet, form CCSG-1, uses weekly amounts only, which may be rounded to the nearest dollar.

Low incomes and high incomes

A father with $400 of net weekly income and one child is in the shaded area: the block shows $61 a week, whatever the mother earns. At the other end, with $8,000 of combined net weekly income and one child, the schedule’s $6,000 amount of $757 is the minimum presumptive obligation and the maximum is the $8,000 combined income times the percentage at the $6,000 level, $1,009; a father with a 63% share (62.5% rounded to a whole percentage) would pay between $477 and $636 a week under those bounds.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

• Regs. Conn. State Agencies 46b-215a-2c: child support guidelines
• Regs. Conn. State Agencies 46b-215a-1: definitions

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