Updated for the SB 454 guideline changes effective January 1, 2026
Quick answer: Georgia calculates child support using an Income Shares Model under O.C.G.A. § 19-6-15. Both parents’ gross monthly incomes are combined, matched against the state’s Basic Child Support Obligation table, and divided in proportion to what each parent earns. That figure is then adjusted for court-ordered parenting time, health insurance, work-related childcare, and any deviations the court approves. The result is the final child support amount. As of January 1, 2026, two of those steps — the parenting time adjustment and the low-income adjustment — are mandatory formulas rather than discretionary judgment calls.
What follows walks through each step in the order the worksheet actually runs it, with two worked examples built on the current tables. If you are trying to work out what your own order should look like, our Atlanta child support attorneys can run the numbers with you.
What Changed on January 1, 2026
If you have read anything about Georgia child support written before 2026, some of it is now wrong. Senate Bill 454 rewrote significant portions of O.C.G.A. § 19-6-15 in two phases.
Phase one, effective July 1, 2024: A new Basic Child Support Obligation table. The dollar figures were updated for the first time since the guidelines took effect in 2007, and the table was extended from a $30,000 ceiling on combined monthly income up to $40,000.
Phase two, effective January 1, 2026:
- The parenting time deviation is gone. In its place is a mandatory Parenting Time Adjustment, calculated on a newly created Child Support Schedule C using a fixed mathematical formula. A judge no longer decides whether to credit a paying parent for overnights. The worksheet does it automatically.
- The low-income deviation is gone. In its place is a mandatory Low-Income Adjustment driven by its own statutory table.
- VA disability benefits paid to a child on a noncustodial parent’s account are now credited against that parent’s final support amount, mirroring how Social Security dependent benefits have always worked.
- The custodial parent is defined for equal-time cases. When a child lives with both parents equally, the custodial parent is the one earning less.
These changes apply to orders entered or modified on or after January 1, 2026. An existing order does not recalculate itself. If you want the new rules applied to an older order, you have to file for modification.
The Income Shares Model, in Plain English
Georgia’s guidelines rest on a single idea: a child should receive roughly the same share of parental income after a separation as they would have received if the parents lived together.
So the state does not ask “what can the paying parent afford?” It asks “what would this family have spent on this child?” and then splits that number between the parents according to who earns what.
Everything that follows is machinery for answering those two questions.
Note on the official calculator. The Georgia Child Support Commission maintains the only calculator the courts recognize, at csconlinecalc.georgiacourts.gov. Any worksheet you file has to come from it. Third-party “Georgia child support calculators” are estimates at best, and many have not been updated for the 2026 rules. Run the official one before you rely on a number.
Step 1: Determine Each Parent’s Gross Monthly Income (Schedule A)
Both parents’ incomes go on Schedule A. “Gross” means before taxes and before any deductions.
What counts as income:
Salaries, wages, commissions, fees, and tips. Self-employment income. Bonuses and overtime. Severance. Recurring pension and retirement income, including IRAs and Keoghs. Interest, dividends, trust income, annuities, and capital gains. Social Security disability and retirement benefits under Title II. VA disability benefits. Workers’ compensation. Unemployment benefits. Personal injury judgments and civil awards. Cash gifts and gifts convertible to cash. Prizes and lottery winnings. Alimony received from someone other than the other parent in this case. Assets used to support the family.
What does not count:
Child support received for a child from another relationship. Means-tested public benefits, including TANF, SNAP, SSI, and PeachCare for Kids. Foster care payments. Adoption assistance under Title IV-B or IV-E. A nonparent custodian’s income.
Three income issues that decide cases
Self-employment income is gross receipts minus ordinary and reasonable expenses. The statute is explicit that this figure will generally differ from business income for tax purposes. Excessive travel, vehicle, promotional, and personal living expenses do not count. Neither does depreciation on equipment, home office costs, accelerated depreciation, or investment tax credits. A parent who runs a business through an S-corp and shows $40,000 of taxable income may have a far higher child support income.
Variable income gets averaged. Commissions, bonuses, overtime, and dividends are averaged over a reasonable period and added to base pay. Truly one-time income can be averaged, prorated, or handled as a one-time percentage payment.
Income can be imputed. If a parent will not produce tax returns, pay stubs, or other reliable evidence, the court can impute income based on assets, residence, work history, job skills, education, local job market, and other factors. In a modification case, the court has an additional option: increase the non-producing parent’s income by at least 10% per year for each year since the last order. If a parent is found willfully unemployed or underemployed, support is calculated on earning capacity.
Incarceration is treated differently. A court cannot assume pre-incarceration earning capacity, and incarceration alone is not willful unemployment.
Step 2: Adjust Gross Income (Schedule B)
Three deductions, and only three, can reduce gross income on Schedule B.
1. Self-employment taxes. A self-employed parent deducts one-half of self-employment and Medicare taxes: 6.2% of self-employment income up to the OASDI wage cap, plus 1.45% for Medicare.
2. Preexisting child support orders. A parent gets credit for current support actually being paid under an order in another case, provided that case’s initial order was filed with the clerk earlier than the initial order in this case. Priority runs by filing date and time of the initial order, and later modifications do not change that priority. Credit is capped at the average actually paid over the past 12 months, proven by payment history, clerk records, or cancelled checks. Payments toward arrears do not count.
3. A theoretical order for other qualified children. If a parent is supporting another child who lives in their home, is not covered by a preexisting order, and is not part of this case, the court may allow a credit. This one is discretionary and requires two findings: that ignoring the other child would cause substantial hardship to the parent, and that the credit serves the best interest of the child in the current case.
The math: look up the BCSO for that parent’s gross income alone and the number of qualified children, multiply by 75%, and deduct the result. Stepchildren do not qualify.
What is not deductible: taxes withheld, health insurance premiums, retirement contributions, alimony paid, or debt payments. Alimony can be a deviation later, but it never reduces gross income.
Step 3: Combine the Adjusted Incomes
Add both parents’ adjusted incomes together. That total is the Combined Adjusted Gross Income, and it drives everything downstream.
Step 4: Find the Basic Child Support Obligation
Take the combined adjusted gross income to the BCSO table in O.C.G.A. § 19-6-15(o). Find the row closest to your combined figure and the column for the number of children. Where they intersect is the Basic Child Support Obligation.
The table runs in $50 increments from $800 to $40,000 of combined monthly income, covering one to six children. If your combined income falls between two rows, use the closest bracket, not the lower one.
The BCSO is rebuttably presumed correct. It is the starting point, not the answer.
Above $40,000/month: the court sets the BCSO at the table maximum and may deviate upward for high-income parents. This is the “high income deviation,” and it is where genuinely complex litigation happens, because there is no formula above the ceiling. See high income child support in Georgia for what happens above the table.
Step 5: Split the Obligation Pro Rata
Divide each parent’s adjusted income by the combined adjusted income. That percentage is that parent’s pro rata share. Multiply the BCSO by each percentage.
If a father’s adjusted income is 60% of the combined total, he carries 60% of the basic obligation.
Step 6: Apply the Parenting Time Adjustment (Schedule C) — New for 2026
This is the most consequential change in the 2026 guidelines, and it is the step most parents get wrong.
The BCSO table is built on spending patterns in intact families, so it contains no assumption about parenting time. When a noncustodial parent has court-ordered parenting time, that parent is already covering some of those costs directly. Schedule C accounts for it.
How parenting time is counted
Parenting time is measured in days, defined as overnights, averaged over a two-year period to produce an annual number. Where a parent has regular recurring daytime periods without overnights, total hours are divided by 24. Days for both parents must total 365, and the noncustodial parent’s figure must be 182.5 or less.
Two practical points:
- The adjustment applies only to court-ordered parenting time. If there is no order granting parenting time, no adjustment is made, no matter what the parents actually do in practice. Informal arrangements earn nothing here.
- Labels do not matter. Time counts whether the order calls it visitation, physical custody, or parenting time.
The formula
The statute lays out eight steps. They reduce to something much easier to hold in your head:
Parenting Time Adjustment = BCSO × [ NCP days2.5 ÷ ( NCP days2.5 + CP days2.5 ) ]
That adjustment is then subtracted from the noncustodial parent’s pro rata share of the BCSO.
The 2.5 exponent is doing real work. The relationship between overnights and dollars is not linear. Going from 60 to 80 overnights moves the number a little. Going from 140 to 175 moves it a lot. The curve steepens sharply as parenting time approaches equal.
| NCP court-ordered days | Share of BCSO credited |
|---|---|
| 52 (every other weekend) | ~2% |
| 80 | ~5% |
| 110 | ~11% |
| 140 | ~19% |
| 165 | ~35% |
| 182.5 (equal) | 50% |
Illustrative figures showing the shape of the curve.
The adjustment can flip who pays
The statute says plainly that this adjustment can reduce the noncustodial parent’s share to zero, and that where the custodial parent’s income exceeds the noncustodial parent’s, it can push the custodial parent’s obligation above the noncustodial parent’s.
Georgia handles that with a new concept: the payer. If, after running every schedule, the noncustodial parent’s obligation is a negative number, the sign flips and the custodial parent pays that amount to the noncustodial parent.
A parent can now be the custodial parent on paper and still write the monthly check.
Step 7: Add Health Insurance and Work-Related Childcare (Schedule D)
The BCSO table does not include health insurance premiums, work-related childcare, or uninsured medical costs. The first two get added here. Together with the adjusted basic obligation, they produce the Presumptive Amount of Child Support.
Work-related childcare must be necessary for a parent’s employment, education, or vocational training, projected forward 12 months and averaged monthly. If a subsidy covers part of it, only the parent’s out-of-pocket portion counts. If a parent provides the care personally, or a relative provides it free, nothing is added. Because these costs swing, the court has discretion to pull childcare out of the monthly number entirely and order it split pro rata as incurred.
Health insurance premiums are added at the amount attributable to the child only. If the child is on a family policy and the child’s share cannot be verified, divide the total premium by the number of people covered and multiply by the number of children in the case. Premiums the employer pays that never hit the parent’s wages are not included.
Both totals are divided pro rata using the same percentages from Step 5. The parent actually paying the expense is credited for it.
Step 8: Consider Deviations (Schedule E)
The presumptive amount is rebuttable. The court or a jury may deviate up or down when the presumptive figure would be unjust or inappropriate and a deviation serves the child’s best interest. Arguing for or against child support deviations is where most of the evidentiary work in a contested case happens.
Specific deviations named in the statute:
- High income — combined adjusted income above $40,000/month
- Other health insurance — vision or dental available at reasonable cost
- Life insurance — premiums on a policy benefiting the child
- Child and dependent care tax credit
- Travel expenses — where distance between parents makes parenting time travel substantial
- Alimony — actual payments, considered here rather than as an income deduction
- Mortgage — where the noncustodial parent provides the home the child lives in
- Permanency or foster care plan
- Extraordinary expenses — educational, medical, and special child-rearing expenses
- Nonspecific deviations — any other reason that serves the child’s best interest
The 7% rule on special expenses
Special child-rearing expenses such as summer camp, music lessons, travel, and school extracurriculars are partly baked into the BCSO already. A deviation is available only for the portion exceeding 7% of the basic child support obligation. Below that threshold, the guideline number is presumed to cover it.
Written findings are not optional
Any deviation requires written findings, or special interrogatory findings from a jury, stating three things:
- The reasons for the deviation
- What the amount would have been without it
- How applying the presumptive amount would be unjust or inappropriate given each parent’s ability to pay, and how the deviation serves the child’s best interest
Orders that skip these findings get reversed. A separate limit applies regardless: no deviation may seriously impair the custodial parent’s ability to provide the child minimally adequate housing, food, clothing, and other basic necessities.
Step 9: Apply the Low-Income Adjustment — New for 2026
Under the old law, a low-income noncustodial parent had to request a deviation and prove no earning capacity or extreme economic hardship. Whether they got relief varied from courtroom to courtroom.
That is gone. As of January 1, 2026, a parent whose monthly adjusted gross income falls below the highest income shown in the low-income adjustment table in § 19-6-15(p) automatically receives the lesser of their presumptive amount of child support or the amount from the table.
No motion. No hardship showing. No judicial discretion. The Commission’s calculator runs the comparison and enters the result.
The Child Support Commission describes the adjustment as a failsafe preventing a support obligation from exceeding roughly 19%, 24%, 25%, 26%, 27%, and 28% of a parent’s adjusted gross income for one through six children respectively.
Note that the adjustment now reaches meaningfully further up the income scale than the old $1,850/month deviation trigger, so it applies to more families than most parents assume.
Step 10: Apply Social Security and VA Disability Credits
If a child receives Social Security Title II benefits or VA disability benefits on the noncustodial parent’s account, those payments count as child support and are credited against that parent’s final amount.
- If the presumptive amount exceeds the benefit, the parent pays the difference.
- If the benefit equals or exceeds the presumptive amount, the support obligation is satisfied and nothing further is owed.
- If the benefit is larger than the final support amount, the custodial parent keeps the excess for the child. It cannot be used to reduce support further or offset arrears.
The VA credit is new as of January 1, 2026. Disabled veterans whose children receive apportioned benefits were previously counted for the income and not credited for the payment.
Step 11: Allocate Future Uninsured Healthcare Expenses
Copays, deductibles, orthodontia, dental, vision, physical therapy, counseling, and other uncovered medical costs are allocated by percentage on the worksheet. They are not part of the support calculation and do not change the monthly number. The default split is pro rata unless the court orders otherwise. Every final order has to specify each parent’s percentage.
A Worked Example
The family: Two children. The mother is the custodial parent. The father has 110 court-ordered overnights per year.
| Father (NCP) | Mother (CP) | |
|---|---|---|
| Gross monthly income | $8,000 (self-employed) | $5,000 (W-2) |
| Self-employment tax deduction | −$612 | — |
| Adjusted income | $7,388 | $5,000 |
Combined adjusted income: $12,388
BCSO (2 children, closest bracket $12,400): $2,216
Pro rata shares:
- Father: $7,388 ÷ $12,388 = 59.64% → $1,321.59
- Mother: $5,000 ÷ $12,388 = 40.36% → $894.41
Parenting time adjustment (Schedule C):
1102.5 = 126,906 and 2552.5 = 1,038,364
$2,216 × [126,906 ÷ 1,165,270] = $241.34
Father’s adjusted share: $1,321.59 − $241.34 = $1,080.25
Additional expenses (Schedule D): Mother pays $300/month for the children’s health insurance and $600/month for work-related childcare. Total $900.
Father’s pro rata share: 59.64% × $900 = $536.76
Presumptive amount of child support: $1,080.25 + $536.76 = $1,617.01
No deviations apply and the low-income adjustment is not triggered, so the father pays approximately $1,617 per month. Uninsured healthcare expenses are allocated 59.64% to him and 40.36% to the mother.
A second example: when the custodial parent pays
The family: One child. The mother is the custodial parent and earns $12,000/month. The father earns $4,000/month and has 160 court-ordered overnights.
Combined adjusted income: $16,000 → BCSO for one child: $1,730
- Father’s pro rata share (25%): $432.50
- Mother’s pro rata share (75%): $1,297.50
Parenting time adjustment: $1,730 × [1602.5 ÷ (1602.5 + 2052.5)] = $605.28
Father’s obligation: $432.50 − $605.28 = −$172.78
The result is negative, so the sign flips and the mother becomes the payer. She owes the father roughly $173 per month, even though she is the custodial parent.
Before 2026, this outcome was almost impossible to reach. It now falls out of the worksheet arithmetic.
Six Mistakes That Change the Number
- Using net income instead of gross. Georgia works from gross. Taxes, insurance, and retirement contributions are not deductions.
- Counting informal parenting time. Schedule C credits court-ordered days only. If the parenting plan says every other weekend but the child is actually with the other parent half the time, the worksheet sees every other weekend. Fixing the parenting plan is the fix.
- Deducting arrears payments. Only current support under a preexisting order reduces gross income. Arrears payments never do.
- Treating a self-employed parent’s tax return as the answer. Add-backs for depreciation, home office, vehicle, and personal expenses routinely move a self-employment income figure by thousands per month.
- Skipping the written findings on a deviation. A deviation without statutory findings is reversible on appeal, and the party who benefited from it loses.
- Relying on a pre-2026 calculator or worksheet. Any worksheet without a Schedule C is obsolete. Any guide referencing a $1,850 low-income threshold or a $30,000 table ceiling is describing law that no longer exists.
Modifying an Existing Order
The 2026 changes do not reach back. Existing orders stay as written until someone files.
To modify, you generally need a substantial change in either parent’s income and financial status, or in the child’s needs. There is a two-year waiting period between modification petitions filed by the same parent, with three exceptions: the noncustodial parent failed to exercise court-ordered parenting time, exercised more parenting time than the order provided, or suffered an involuntary loss of income.
On involuntary loss of income: if a parent involuntarily loses a job, loses hours, is on strike, loses their health, or becomes incarcerated, and the result is a 25% or greater income loss, the portion of support attributable to the lost income stops accruing from the date the modification petition is served on the other parent. Service is what stops the clock, so filing promptly matters.
The 2026 changes are worth a review if your current order was set without meaningful credit for parenting time, if your parenting plan gives you substantial overnights, or if you are a lower-income payer. Whether a modification helps depends on both incomes, the number of children, insurance, childcare, and the exact court-ordered day count. It can also go the other way, which is why it is worth modeling before filing rather than after.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is child support calculated in Georgia?
Georgia uses an Income Shares Model under O.C.G.A. § 19-6-15. Both parents’ gross monthly incomes are adjusted and combined, matched to the Basic Child Support Obligation table, and divided pro rata. The result is adjusted for court-ordered parenting time, health insurance, work-related childcare, deviations, and the low-income adjustment.
Does Georgia child support account for 50/50 custody?
Yes, and as of January 1, 2026 it does so automatically. The Parenting Time Adjustment on Schedule C uses a formula based on court-ordered days raised to the 2.5 power. At equal parenting time, the adjustment credits half the basic obligation, which typically leaves the higher earner paying a reduced amount and can eliminate the obligation where incomes are similar.
What is the maximum income the Georgia child support table covers?
$40,000 per month in combined adjusted gross income, raised from $30,000 in 2024. Above that, the court sets the obligation at the table maximum and may deviate upward.
Can the custodial parent be ordered to pay child support in Georgia?
Yes. If the worksheet produces a negative obligation for the noncustodial parent, the statute converts it to a positive number and the custodial parent becomes the payer. This most often happens when the custodial parent earns substantially more and the noncustodial parent has significant court-ordered parenting time.
Is overtime income included in Georgia child support?
Yes. Overtime, bonuses, and commissions are included and averaged over a reasonable period consistent with the case.
Do I get credit for supporting a child from another relationship?
It depends on the arrangement. A preexisting child support order that you are actually paying is a mandatory adjustment. A child living in your home who is not under an order is a discretionary theoretical order credit, which requires a showing of substantial hardship and a best-interest finding.
How long does child support last in Georgia?
The duty continues until the child turns 18, dies, marries, or becomes emancipated. If the child turns 18 while still enrolled in and attending secondary school, the court may order support to continue until graduation, but not past age 20.
Which child support calculator should I use?
Only the Georgia Child Support Commission’s official calculator at csconlinecalc.georgiacourts.gov produces a worksheet that can be filed with the court. It was updated for SB 454 and includes Schedule C and the low-income adjustment.
Talk to an Atlanta Child Support Attorney
The arithmetic above is only as good as the numbers going into it. Most contested child support cases in Georgia are not fights about the formula. They are fights about what a self-employed parent actually earns, how many overnights the parenting plan should provide, whether a bonus is recurring, and whether a deviation is supported by evidence and findings that will survive appeal.
Naggiar & Sarif handles child support representation in Atlanta and throughout Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, and Gwinnett counties, including high-income cases, self-employment and business income disputes, and modifications under the new 2026 guidelines.
This article provides general information about Georgia law and is not legal advice. Child support outcomes depend on the specific facts of each case. Reading this article does not create an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed Georgia family law attorney.
Last reviewed: August 2026. Georgia’s child support guidelines are codified at O.C.G.A. § 19-6-15 and were amended by Senate Bill 454, with provisions effective July 1, 2024 and January 1, 2026.
Sources
- O.C.G.A. § 19-6-15, Child Support Guidelines (PDF) — Georgia Child Support Commission
- Changes to the Georgia Child Support Calculator, effective 01/01/2026 — Georgia Child Support Commission
- Georgia Child Support Calculator — the official calculator