Indiana child support guidelines

How does Indiana calculate child support?

Indiana uses income shares: each parent pays a share of one combined support amount. The calculation starts with weekly gross income, not take-home pay (Guideline 1). Income can include actual earnings, potential earnings, and noncash benefits; means-tested assistance such as Supplemental Security Income is excluded (Guideline 3A).

Allowed reductions produce weekly adjusted income (Guideline 3C). These include qualifying support obligations for other children and ordered maintenance or alimony from another jurisdiction (Guidelines 3C.1 and 3C.4). The parents’ adjusted incomes are added together, and the Weekly Support Schedule supplies the basic amount for their combined income and number of children (Guideline 3D).

Indiana uses a schedule, not a flat percentage of the paying parent’s earnings. Each parent’s share follows that parent’s proportion of combined weekly adjusted income (Guideline 1). Between listed income amounts, the basic support amount is rounded to the nearest scheduled amount (Guideline 3D). Below $100 in combined weekly adjusted income, support is determined case by case; the guideline establishes no minimum obligation (Guideline 2).

How does parenting time affect support?

Indiana’s Parenting Time Table begins at 52 overnights annually (Guideline 6). At that threshold and above, the table supplies fractions for total and duplicated expenses used in the Parenting Time Credit Worksheet. The credit is not automatic: the court considers whether it would jeopardize a parent’s ability to support the children and must explain a departure from the credit.

Parenting time is considered equally shared at 181 to 183 overnights annually (Guideline 6). One parent is designated to pay controlled expenses, and the other receives the parenting time credit; equal time does not automatically mean no support. When overnight counts differ among children, Guideline 6 calls for calculating credits using each overnight pattern for all the children, then averaging those dollar amounts.

What else changes the support amount?

Added expenses, other support duties, and low income can change the calculation. A court may also depart from the guideline if applying it would be unjust, but must explain the factual reasons in writing (Support Rule 3).

• Child care: Employment- or job-search-related child care is added to the basic obligation. Annual expenses are divided by 52 weeks (Guideline 3E.1).
• Health insurance: Weekly health insurance costs enter the calculation (Guideline 1). An order must require coverage through either or both parents when available at a reasonable cost (IC 31-16-6-4).
• Uninsured care: Indiana Judicial Branch’s Court Times explains that uninsured health care expenses are an add-on shared in proportion to income, rather than included in basic support.
• Other children: The worksheet accounts for legal support duties for prior-born children. A qualifying adjustment also applies for later-born or legally adopted children when the parent actually meets that obligation (Guidelines 3A and 3C.1).
• Low income: Court Times explains that the shaded schedule’s low-income adjustment uses both parents’ combined income.
• Other circumstances: The court considers financial resources, the child’s expected standard of living, physical or mental condition, and educational needs (IC 31-16-6-1).

When does support end or change?

Regular support generally ends at age 19, with exceptions (IC 31-16-6-6). It may continue during incapacity or through secondary-school graduation when the child is a full-time student and the required notice is filed. Educational support is separate, and emancipation can end regular support earlier.

Modification requires a substantial and continuing change making the existing order unreasonable, or an order at least 12 months old that differs from the newly calculated guideline amount by more than 20% (Guideline 4). For an order covering multiple children, the total does not automatically decrease when the oldest child reaches 19; judicial modification is required (Guideline 4).

The Indiana Judicial Branch provides an official guideline calculator. Its Child Support Obligation Worksheet and Parenting Time Credit Worksheet provide the official calculation framework. The official links on this page identify those resources; this independent site does not issue or change orders.