# Texas child support guidelines and how net resources work

> How Texas child support is calculated: guideline percentages, the $11,700 net resources cap, what counts as income, and when a court departs from the formula.

Texas child support runs on a percentage of one parent's income. That makes it simpler than most states' formulas and moves the entire fight to a single question: what is that parent's income.

If the paying parent draws a salary with a pay stub, the answer takes ten minutes. If they own a business, work on commission, or get most of their money in bonuses and distributions, the answer takes months.

## How is child support calculated in Texas?

Take the paying parent's monthly net resources and apply a percentage. [Family Code section 154.125](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/FA/htm/FA.154.htm) sets the guideline schedule the court presumptively applies:

- 1 child: 20 percent of net resources
- 2 children: 25 percent
- 3 children: 30 percent
- 4 children: 35 percent
- 5 children: 40 percent
- 6 or more: not less than the amount for 5 children

There is a separate low-income schedule. When the paying parent's monthly net resources are under $1,000, section 154.125(c) drops the percentages to 15 percent for one child, rising to 35 percent for five.

The percentages step down when the paying parent also supports children in another household. [Family Code section 154.129](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/FA/htm/FA.154.htm) gives an alternative table for that situation, and for one child before the court with one other child elsewhere, the figure drops from 20 percent to 17.50.

The Texas Attorney General publishes a [monthly child support calculator](https://csapps.oag.texas.gov/monthly-child-support-calculator) that runs the same arithmetic.

## What is the maximum child support in Texas?

The percentages only apply up to a capped amount of net resources. As of September 1, 2025, the guidelines apply to monthly net resources of no more than $11,700, an increase from the $9,200 that had been in place since 2019.

The Office of the Attorney General sets the number and publishes it in the Texas Register, and [Family Code section 154.125](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/FA/htm/FA.154.htm) requires it to be adjusted every six years for inflation, rounded to the nearest $50. The [Texas Register notice](https://www.sos.texas.gov/texreg/archive/August152025/In%20Addition/In%20Addition.html) is the official source.

So the guideline maximum for one child is 20 percent of $11,700, which is $2,340 a month. Income above the cap is not automatically ignored. A parent can ask the court to order more by proving the child's proven needs exceed the guideline amount, and the court then allocates that additional need between the parents.

## What counts as net resources in a Texas child support case?

This is where cases are won and lost. [Family Code section 154.062](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/FA/htm/FA.154.htm) defines resources broadly and then allows a short list of deductions.

Resources include:

- 100 percent of wage and salary income and other compensation for personal services, including commissions, overtime, tips, and bonuses
- Interest, dividends, and royalty income
- Self-employment income
- Net rental income, meaning rent after operating expenses and mortgage payments, without deducting noncash items like depreciation
- All other income actually being received, including severance, retirement benefits, pensions, trust income, annuities, capital gains, social security other than SSI, unemployment, disability and workers' compensation benefits, gifts and prizes, spousal maintenance, and alimony

Resources do not include return of principal or capital, accounts receivable, TANF or other federal public assistance, or foster care payments.

From that total, the court deducts only:

- Social security taxes
- Federal income tax calculated for a single person claiming one personal exemption and the standard deduction
- State income tax, which Texas does not have
- Union dues
- The cost of health insurance, dental insurance, or cash medical support for the child
- Nondiscretionary retirement contributions, if the parent does not pay social security taxes

Notice what is not deductible: the mortgage, the car payment, credit card debt, or the cost of the parent's own living expenses. The federal tax deduction is calculated on a fixed assumption, not on what the parent actually paid.

### How is child support calculated for a self-employed parent in Texas?

By reconstructing what the business actually pays for. Self-employment income is a resource, and the depreciation carve-out in section 154.062 is a signal about how courts read a tax return in these cases: a paper deduction that costs no cash does not reduce what a parent can pay.

The usual work is going through the business's own records and separating genuine operating expenses from personal spending that runs through the company. A vehicle, a phone, meals, travel, a family member on payroll, and a home office all sit on that line.

That is a transaction-level review across business and personal accounts, often several years of them, and it is the same exercise described in the [discovery chapter](https://www.counselpro.ai/divorce-guide/texas/financial-disclosure-and-discovery). Pulling every account into one categorized history, with each figure traceable back to the statement page it came from, is what turns "I think he takes more than he reports" into a number you can hand a judge.

## When can a Texas court order more or less than the guideline amount?

When the evidence rebuts the presumption that the guideline is in the child's best interest. [Family Code section 154.123](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/FA/htm/FA.154.htm) lists what the court considers, including:

- The age and needs of the child
- Each parent's ability to contribute
- Other financial resources available for the child
- The amount of time each parent has possession of and access to the child
- The receiving parent's net resources, including earning potential when that parent is intentionally unemployed or underemployed
- Child care expenses either parent pays so they can work

When a court orders an amount that varies from the guideline, or when a party asks for findings, [Family Code section 154.130](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/FA/htm/FA.154.htm) requires the order to state each parent's monthly net resources, the percentage applied, and the specific reasons for the variance. That request has to be made in open court or in writing before the order is signed, and no later than 20 days after it is rendered.

Those findings are worth asking for. They are what an appeal or a later modification is built on.

## How long does child support last in Texas?

Until the child turns 18 or graduates from high school, whichever happens later, under [Family Code section 154.001](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/FA/htm/FA.154.htm). It also ends on emancipation by marriage or court order, or on the child's death.

For a child who is disabled as defined in the chapter, support can be ordered for an indefinite period, and that order can be entered even after the child is an adult.

Support does not end because the paying parent lost a job, because the other parent remarried, or because a teenager moved in with the payer for a semester. It ends when the order says it ends, or when a court changes it.

## How is child support enforced and changed in Texas?

Most support is collected by wage withholding sent to the employer, and payments run through the state disbursement unit so there is a record of every one. Enforcement tools include contempt, license suspension, tax refund interception, liens, and passport denial.

To change an order you file a modification suit and show a material and substantial change in circumstances, or that it has been three years since the order and the guideline amount would differ from the current order by either 20 percent or $100.

Do not wait. Support accrues under the existing order until a court changes it, and unpaid support becomes a judgment that does not go away. If your income drops, the motion you file this month is worth more than the argument you make next year. The related possession questions are covered in the [conservatorship chapter](https://www.counselpro.ai/divorce-guide/texas/conservatorship-and-possession).

Source: https://www.counselpro.ai/divorce-guide/texas/child-support