Florida child support calculator

Florida is an income-shares state: the law estimates what the parents would spend on the children if the household were intact, then splits that obligation in proportion to income. The inputs are each parent's monthly net income — gross income under § 61.30(2) (wages, bonuses, self-employment, disability, unemployment, pensions, and more) minus the specific deductions in § 61.30(3): income taxes for your actual filing status, FICA or self-employment tax, mandatory union dues, mandatory retirement, your own health insurance premiums (not the children's), and court-ordered support actually paid for other children.

Unlike Texas, Florida does not standardize the tax deduction — your real tax picture matters, which is why court filings require a financial affidavit. This calculator asks for net income directly; if you only know gross pay, subtract the § 61.30(3) items first.

Combined net income and the number of children look up a basic obligation in the statutory schedule, which runs from $800 to $10,000 of combined monthly net income in $50 steps. Three edges matter:

Between rows. The statute lists $50 increments and does not say what to do with an income of, say, $5,025. This calculator uses the next listed row above your income — which is how the court worksheet is applied in practice (we verified it against real worksheet output: a combined income of $7,285 reads the $7,300 row) — and says so in the work panel whenever it happens. The gap between adjacent rows is small, but the convention matters, so we name it.

Above $10,000. § 61.30(6)(b) extends the schedule: the $10,000 amount plus 5% / 7.5% / 9.5% / 11% / 12% / 12.5% of the excess for one through six children. That is a defined formula, so results up there are still stamped exact.

Below $800. The schedule simply does not reach it. § 61.30(6)(a) makes the amount case-by-case — and caps any payment at 90% of the amount by which the paying parent's net income exceeds the federal poverty guideline for a single person. This calculator will not invent a number in that range.

When each parent has the children for at least 20% of overnights — 73 nights a year — Florida switches to the § 61.30(11)(b) formula, and the switch is mandatory, not discretionary. The basic obligation is multiplied by 1.5 (two households genuinely cost more), each parent's share is then multiplied by the other parent's percentage of overnights, and the difference between the two results is the transfer. Child care and health insurance are handled separately in this mode: each parent's income-proportional share is compared with what they actually pay, and the difference credits or debits the transfer.

This formula matters more in Florida than almost anywhere: since 2023, Florida law presumes that equal time-sharing is in the child's best interests, so a large share of new cases lands here. Note that equal overnights do not zero out support — with a 50/50 schedule the formula still moves money from the higher earner to the lower one.

Work-related child care (§ 61.30(7)) and the children's health insurance plus noncovered medical costs (§ 61.30(8)) are added to the basic obligation before it is split. Whoever actually pays those bills gets credit for them — so a paying parent who also carries the children's insurance pays that much less in direct support. This calculator asks who pays each item and applies the credit the same way the court worksheet does.

It does not compute your net income — Florida ties the tax deduction to your actual filing status, so no honest calculator can do that from gross pay alone without rebuilding your tax return. It does not compute the § 61.30(6)(a) poverty-guideline cap for very-low-income payers; it flags when the cap applies and tells you the rule instead of guessing the number. It does not predict deviations: courts may adjust ±5% freely, and further on the eleven factors in § 61.30(11)(a) — including when guideline support would take more than 55% of the payer's gross income. And it does not handle retroactive support (§ 61.30(17)) or more than six children, because the statute's schedule stops at six.

Schedule and formulas: Fla. Stat. § 61.30 (2025 Florida Statutes, flsenate.gov), cross-verified against the Legislature's Online Sunshine publication. Worksheet mechanics: Form 12.902(e), Florida Courts. For an order enforced by the State: the Florida Department of Revenue Child Support Program. Legal data last verified July 10, 2026 — found an error? Tell us, with a citation.