The Minnesota child support calculator is a free state tool at childsupportcalculator.dhs.state.mn.us that applies Minnesota’s income-shares formula to both parents’ incomes, parenting time, health insurance, and childcare costs, and returns a presumptive monthly obligation broken into basic support, medical support, and childcare support.1Minnesota Department of Human Services. Minnesota Child Support Guidelines Calculator The number it produces is a starting point. A judge sets the binding amount, and understanding what the tool is doing behind each field is what lets you gather the right documents, enter figures correctly, and recognize when your case needs an argument the calculator cannot make.
What to Gather Before You Open the Tool
The calculator asks for each parent’s gross monthly income, so pay stubs, recent tax returns, and any award letters for benefits should be in front of you. Gross income for child support is broader than take-home pay. It includes salaries, wages, commissions, workers’ compensation, unemployment benefits, annuity payments, military and naval retirement, pension and disability payments, Social Security benefits paid for a joint child, and spousal maintenance received under a current or prior order. It is figured before voluntary retirement contributions, so no deduction is allowed for 401(k), IRA, or pension contributions.2Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 518A.29 – Calculation of Gross Income
Spousal maintenance you pay is deducted from your gross income before the formula runs. Maintenance you receive is added. Both adjustments happen automatically once you enter the figures correctly.2Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 518A.29 – Calculation of Gross Income
Some income does not belong in the field at all. Needs-based public assistance, including Supplemental Security Income and general assistance, is excluded from gross income and should not be entered.2Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 518A.29 – Calculation of Gross Income SSI is treated differently from Social Security Disability Insurance, which does count.
Overtime and bonuses cause the most trips. If that income is regular and dependable, it belongs in gross income. If it is genuinely sporadic, a court may exclude it, but the calculator cannot make that call. When in doubt, include the income and raise the issue for the judge.
If You Are Self-Employed
Self-employment income is gross receipts minus the cost of goods sold, minus ordinary and necessary business expenses. Accelerated depreciation, investment tax credits, and any expense a court finds inappropriate or excessive are specifically excluded, and the parent claiming a deduction carries the burden of proving the expense is genuinely ordinary and necessary.3Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 518A.30 – Income From Self-Employment or Operation of a Business Have at least two years of tax returns and profit-and-loss statements ready, because courts routinely look past a single year’s numbers to identify patterns.
How the Formula Turns Your Inputs Into a Number
Minnesota’s income-shares model looks at what both parents earn, not just the paying parent. The statutory sequence: determine each parent’s gross income, subtract any credit for nonjoint children, combine both parents’ adjusted incomes, look up the basic support obligation on a guidelines table, split it in proportion to each parent’s share of the combined income, and then adjust for parenting time.4Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 518A.34 – Computation of Child Support Obligations
The guidelines table scales presumptive support by combined parental income and the number of joint children, up through six. Combined monthly income above $20,000 is capped, meaning support at higher combined incomes is the same as at $20,000 unless the court finds a specific reason to go higher, such as a child’s extraordinary needs.5Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 518A.35 – Guideline Used in Child Support Determinations The tool itself handles cases with six or fewer joint children; larger families need the court to set support outside the standard guidelines.1Minnesota Department of Human Services. Minnesota Child Support Guidelines Calculator
Entering Parenting Time
The parenting time percentage you enter drives the Parenting Expense Adjustment, which reduces the paying parent’s obligation to reflect what they spend directly on the child during their time. Every order specifies each parent’s percentage based on the number of overnights (or overnight equivalents) the child spends with each parent during a calendar year, averaged over a two-year period.6Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 518A.36 – Parenting Expense Adjustment
Count overnights from your court order or proposed parenting plan and convert them to a percentage of the year. A few points either way can move the monthly obligation noticeably, especially when parenting time is close to even.7Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families. Parenting Expense Adjustment
Medical Support and Childcare Fields
Medical support is a separate line, not folded into basic support. Enter the monthly cost of health and dental insurance attributable to the children only, not the full family premium. If your employer subsidizes part of the premium, use only the employee-paid share tied to the children.8Minnesota Judicial Branch. Frequently Asked Questions – Child Support The calculator splits the cost between parents in proportion to their share of combined income.
Work-related and education-related childcare costs are split the same way. The total should reflect what the provider actually receives, including any public assistance payments. The statute also requires an adjustment for the estimated federal and state child care tax credits the custodial parent can claim, which slightly reduces the amount being divided. If childcare costs shift seasonally, the court uses an average monthly cost rather than a single month.9Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 518A.40 – Child Care Support
Situations the Calculator Cannot Model
Voluntary Unemployment or Underemployment
If a parent is voluntarily unemployed, working part-time by choice, or underemployed relative to their qualifications, the calculator will not reflect what a judge is likely to use. Minnesota law lets a court impute “potential income” in those situations, and the statute presumes every parent can work full-time, generally 40 hours a week.10Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 518A.32 – Potential Income The court picks one of three methods:
- Employment potential based on the parent’s work history, skills, and local job opportunities.
- Current unemployment or workers’ compensation benefits, using the actual benefit amount.
- A floor of 30 hours per week at the higher of the federal or Minnesota minimum wage.
Running the calculator with a low reported income when the other parent could be earning more will produce a number that understates your support entitlement. Imputing income is an argument you make to the judge; the tool cannot do it for you.10Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 518A.32 – Potential Income
Deviations From the Guideline Amount
The guideline number is presumptive, and a court can adjust it up or down based on each parent’s total financial resources, extraordinary physical or educational needs of the child, the standard of living the child would have had if the parents lived together, and the obligor’s total support obligations across all cases. One deviation appears often enough to be codified: when there is a significant income gap and the lower-earning parent has between 10 and 45 percent parenting time, the court may set that parent’s basic support at zero if paying would actually harm the child.11Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 518A.43 – Deviation From Guidelines The calculator only produces the presumptive figure.
Social Security or Veterans Benefits Paid for the Child
When a child receives Social Security or veterans benefits based on a parent’s eligibility, that amount is included in that parent’s gross income. If the obligor is the parent whose eligibility triggers the benefit and the other parent receives it as representative payee, the benefit is subtracted from the obligor’s net support obligation. An obligor with a calculated obligation of $600 whose child receives a $400 derivative SSDI benefit through the other parent would owe $200 directly. If the derivative benefit exceeds the calculated obligation, direct support drops to zero, and past derivative benefits can also be credited toward arrears if not already reflected in the prior order.12Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 518A.31 – Social Security or Veterans Benefit Payments Received on Behalf of the Child
Working Through the Screens
The calculator moves through labeled screens for income, nonjoint child credits, parenting time percentages, medical insurance costs, and childcare expenses. It is built for people without legal training, but having your documents in hand makes it much faster. Check every entry before advancing. A wrong number on an early screen compounds through the rest of the calculation, and the tool does not flag implausible values. When you finish, it returns a summary that separates basic support, medical support, and childcare support, and you can download or print the worksheet for your filing.1Minnesota Department of Human Services. Minnesota Child Support Guidelines Calculator
What the Worksheet Is Good For
The printed worksheet is supporting evidence, not an order. Attach it to a divorce petition or a motion to establish support to show the court that your proposed number follows the guidelines. A judge reviews it alongside pay stubs, tax returns, and documentation of childcare and insurance costs, and may adjust the figure before signing. Only a signed court order makes an amount legally enforceable.
Running the Calculator Again Later
Re-running the calculator with updated figures is useful when you think your existing order is out of date, but a fresh printout does not change anything by itself. You have to file a motion to modify, and a court will grant it only on a substantial change in circumstances. Minnesota law presumes that change exists when applying current guidelines to updated circumstances produces an amount at least 20 percent and at least $75 per month higher or lower than the existing order. Other qualifying changes include a significant income increase or decrease, a shift in the child’s insurance availability, a change in childcare costs, or an involuntary income drop of 20 percent or more.13Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 518A.39 – Modification of Orders for Support Informal agreements between parents to pay a different amount have no legal effect; only a court can change the order.14Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families. Filing a Motion to Modify Child Support
When Support Ends
Under Minnesota law, “child” means a person under 18, a person under 20 who is still attending secondary school, or someone who cannot support themselves due to a physical or mental condition.15Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 518A.26 – Definitions Support does not automatically stop on the 18th birthday if the child is still in high school; it continues until graduation or age 20, whichever comes first. For a child with a qualifying disability, the obligation can extend indefinitely.