How Indiana calculates child support
- Each parent’s weekly gross income is reduced for children born later, court-ordered or actually paid support for children born earlier, and maintenance paid. The combined weekly adjusted income and the number of children give the basic obligation from the schedule in effect since January 1, 2024.
- Work-related child care and the children’s health insurance premiums are added, the total is shared by income percentage, and each parent is credited for what they pay.
- The paying parent gets a parenting time credit from 52 overnights a year, based on Table PT. With equal time (181 to 183 overnights), the parent who does not pay the controlled expenses gets the credit.
- If the credit is larger than the paying parent’s share, the other parent pays the difference.
What the calculator asks
- How many children is the support for?
- Who do the children live with most of the time?
- Which parent will pay the children’s controlled expenses?
- How many overnights a year will the children spend with the parent who has them less?
- Do some of the children spend a different number of overnights with that parent?
- Overnights a year for the second child
- Overnights a year for the third child
- Overnights a year for the fourth child
- Overnights a year for the fifth child
- Overnights a year for the sixth child
- Overnights a year for the seventh child
- Overnights a year for the eighth child
- Your weekly gross income
- How many children were born to or adopted by you after the children in this case, whom you support?
- Court-ordered weekly support you pay for children born before the children in this case
- Support you actually pay each week, without a court order, for earlier-born children who do not live with you
- Court-ordered spousal maintenance you pay each week
- The other parent’s weekly gross income
- How many children were born to or adopted by the other parent after the children in this case, whom they support?
- Court-ordered weekly support the other parent pays for children born before the children in this case
- Support the other parent actually pays each week, without a court order, for earlier-born children who do not live with them
- Court-ordered spousal maintenance the other parent pays each week
- Does either parent have earlier-born children living in their home with no support order?
- Work-related child care you pay each week for these children
- Work-related child care the other parent pays each week
- Health insurance premium you pay each week for these children
- Health insurance premium the other parent pays each week for these children
- Does a child receive Social Security disability benefits because of a parent’s disability?
- Is any child living away from home while attending school?
It never asks for names, Social Security numbers or account numbers, and your answers are not saved.
What the estimate leaves out
- Deviations the court may make (Support Rule 3), including a credit for fewer than 52 overnights
- Social Security disability benefits paid for a child, and post-secondary education costs
- Prior-born children living in a parent’s home without a support order
- Uninsured health care expenses, which the parents share by income percentage outside the weekly amount
- Extraordinary educational and optional activity expenses (Guideline 8)
When a situation is outside what the calculator covers, it says so and points you to the official worksheet instead of guessing.
Official sources
- Indiana Child Support Rules and Guidelines (updated, effective May 14, 2024), Indiana Supreme Court
- Guideline Schedules for Weekly Support Payments (Indiana Judicial Branch)
- Order Amending Child Support Rules and Guidelines, Cause No. 23S-MS-10 (Oct. 17, 2023, effective January 1, 2024)
- Order Amending Child Support Rules and Guidelines, Case No. 24S-MS-1 (May 14, 2024)
- Child Support Obligation Worksheet and Parenting Time Credit Worksheet (court forms)
Indiana Child Support Obligation Worksheet and Parenting Time Credit Worksheet (court forms) →
Ready to estimate? The calculator shows each worksheet line so you can check it against the official form.
Open the Indiana calculator →An estimate from the published guideline formula, not a prediction of a court order. The official court worksheet and the court’s decision control. General information, not legal advice. LawCat is not a law firm.