Maine child support calculator

How Maine calculates child support

• Each parent’s annual gross income is reduced by support they pay to a former spouse under an earlier order and by child support they pay for other children.
• The parents’ combined income gives a weekly amount per child from the Child Support Table (effective February 13, 2023), read at the income row closest to the combined income and multiplied by the number of children. There are no age categories.
• The children’s health insurance, child care for children under 12 and extraordinary medical expenses are added. The parent who does not provide primary residential care pays their income share, less what they pay directly.
• A paying parent with a low income pays the shaded self-support reserve amount if that is lower. When the parents provide substantially equal care, the higher-income parent pays the lower of their share of the basic support and the difference between the parents’ shares of 1.5 times that support (Form FM-040-A).

What the calculator asks

• How many children is the support for?
• Who provides the children’s primary residential care?
• Does the parent who would pay support have other children living with them whom they must legally support?
• Your gross income per year
• Spousal support you pay each year to a former spouse under an earlier order
• Child support you pay each year for other children
• The other parent’s gross income per year
• Spousal support the other parent pays each year to a former spouse under an earlier order
• Child support the other parent pays each year for other children
• Health insurance you pay for these children each week
• Health insurance the other parent pays for these children each week
• Child care you pay each week for children under 12
• Child care the other parent pays each week for children under 12
• Extraordinary medical expenses you pay each week
• Extraordinary medical expenses the other parent pays each week

It never asks for names, Social Security numbers or account numbers, and your answers are not saved.

What the estimate leaves out

• A paying parent with gross income below $16,800 a year (the 10% rule for parents below the federal poverty guideline)
• Combined incomes above $400,000 a year, and more than six children
• Split custody, where each parent provides primary care for a different child
• The adjustment for other children living with the paying parent (worksheet line 6)
• Deviations the court may make (19-A M.R.S. §2007)

When a situation is outside what the calculator covers, it says so and points you to the official worksheet instead of guessing.

Official sources

• 19-A M.R.S. §2006, support guidelines
• 19-A M.R.S. §2001, definitions
• Child Support Table, 10-144 C.M.R. ch. 351, Chapter 6 (effective February 13, 2023)
• 2023 Maine Child Support Table (Department of Health and Human Services)
• Child Support Worksheet (FM-040, Rev. 02/20)
• Supplemental Child Support Worksheet for substantially equal care (FM-040-A, Rev. 02/20)

Maine Child Support Worksheet FM-040 and Supplemental Worksheet FM-040-A (Maine Judicial Branch) →