What Income and Deductions Count for Connecticut Child Support

By the FigureMyTax Editorial Team · How we calculate

Connecticut starts from average weekly gross income from all sources, caps hourly wages at 45 paid hours, excludes SSI, public assistance and a spouse’s income, and subtracts taxes, health insurance premiums, union dues and support paid for others to reach net weekly income.

Gross income

Gross income means the average weekly earned and unearned income from all sources before deductions (section 46b-215a-1(11)). It includes salary; hourly wages for regular, overtime and additional employment, not to exceed 45 total paid hours a week; commissions, bonuses and tips; profit sharing, deferred and incentive-based compensation and severance pay; tribal stipends; employment perquisites and in-kind compensation; military fringe benefit payments; workers’ compensation, unemployment, strike pay and disability benefits; veterans’ benefits; Social Security paid to the parent, and Social Security dependency benefits paid for the child based on that parent’s record; net contract proceeds; pensions; rental income after reasonable expenses; estate or trust income; royalties; interest, dividends and annuities; self-employment earnings after reasonable business expenses; alimony from a person who is not a party; adoption subsidies received by the custodial parent for the child; lottery and gambling winnings, prizes and regularly recurring gifts; and taxable education grants.

What is excluded

Support received for a child living in the parent’s home; SSI payments; Social Security disability or retirement benefits above $5 a week when the parent also receives SSI; federal, state and local public assistance; the earned income tax credit; and the income and regularly recurring gifts of a spouse or domestic partner.

Deductions

On the worksheet, net weekly income is gross income minus: federal income tax; Social Security tax or a mandatory retirement deduction in lieu of it; Medicare tax; state and local income tax, including mandatory family and medical leave insurance contributions; medical, hospital, dental or health insurance premiums for the parent and legal dependents, including the child whose support is being determined; court-ordered life insurance for the child’s benefit; court-ordered disability insurance; mandatory union dues or fees to the extent the employer deducts them; mandatory uniform and tool costs the employer deducts; court-ordered alimony and child support payments for individuals not involved in the case, but not arrearage payments; and an imputed support obligation for a qualified child.

The qualified child deduction

A parent can claim a qualified child who lives in the household, is the parent’s dependent, is not the subject of the case and for whom no other deduction is claimed, in an initial award or when defending a modification. The regulation has the parent’s income, after other deductions, run through the schedule for the child in the case plus the qualified child, with the other parent’s income treated as zero, and divides the result by the number of children to get the deduction per child.

Using the calculator

The Connecticut child support calculator asks for net weekly income, so work through the deductions above first. Convert monthly or annual amounts to weekly before you enter them.

Weekly, not monthly

Everything in the guidelines is weekly. Divide monthly figures by 52 and multiply by 12, and use average weekly deductions over the year rather than the withholding on a single paycheck.

Documents to gather

Bring pay stubs, last year’s tax returns, proof of health insurance premiums, any court orders for other support and the Social Security statement showing dependency benefits. The worksheet starts from each parent’s weekly gross income and the number of hours worked, to a maximum of forty-five.

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.