Fifteen percent on the worksheet, and it is retroactive to the day you file.
Home › Memphis Child Custody › Child Support Modification
The Threshold
Child support in Tennessee is calculated on a worksheet using both parents’ incomes and the number of days each parent has the child. Modification is not a judgment call about whether the current number feels fair.
Our Tennessee child support calculator runs that worksheet, including the parenting time adjustment and the self-support reserve.
You run the new numbers and the new schedule through the child support worksheet. If the result differs from the current order by fifteen percent or more, the order can be modified.
For a parent who is unemployed or underemployed and whose income is at or below the federal poverty level, the threshold drops to seven and a half percent.
And parenting time itself can trigger a modification. The support formula shifts once the alternate residential parent exercises ninety-two or more days a year, so a real change in the number of days actually exercised can justify a modification even without a fifteen percent income variance. Courts look at days actually exercised, not just what the plan says.
Separate Filing
Child support modification is a separate filing on a separate docket from a custody modification. Related subject matter, entirely separate procedure.
Worth knowing in both directions. A petition to change custody always reviews child support, because support moves with the parenting schedule. But support can also be modified on its own, with no custody question involved at all.
If a parenting schedule changes, the support number almost certainly changes too, and that is frequently the real reason one side fights a custody modification.
The Part That Costs People Money
A modification is retroactive to the date of filing. Not to the date the circumstances changed. Not to the date you first mentioned it. The date you file.
Which means every month spent waiting to see whether a job situation resolves is a month of the old number that cannot be recovered.
The change has to still be true when the case is heard. Example: a mother loses her job, files for modification, and by the time it is heard she has a new job at the same income. The order should not change, because the circumstance that justified the modification no longer exists.
That is not a reason to delay. It is a reason to file quickly and let the facts be what they are at the hearing.
Job Loss
A job loss is the most common trigger, and it is also where people lose the most money.
You have to file to get on the schedule, and getting on the schedule takes a while. During all of that time the existing order remains in effect and arrears continue to accrue at the old number.
Filing does not fix the problem immediately. It fixes the date the fix will apply from, which is the part that matters.
Your Attorney
Sam Jaber · Divorce & Family Law
Attorney Sam Jaber handles child support and custody matters arising out of divorce, in Shelby County circuit and chancery court. He has practiced divorce and family law in Memphis for over a decade.
Custody modification → · Contested divorce → · About Sam Jaber →
William Young · Of Counsel · Juvenile Court
Attorney William Young handles support and custody in Shelby County Juvenile Court, where the parents were never married.
Unmarried fathers → · Juvenile court → · About William Young →
Common Questions
Run the new incomes and the new parenting schedule through the child support worksheet. If the result differs from the current order by fifteen percent or more, the order can be modified. Below that threshold there is nothing to file.
No. It is a separate filing on a separate docket. Related subject matter, entirely separate procedure. A petition to change custody always reviews child support, because support moves with the parenting schedule, but support can also be modified on its own with no custody question involved.
No. It is retroactive to the date you file, not to the date the circumstances changed. Every month spent waiting is a month at the old number that cannot be recovered.
The change has to still be true when the case is heard. If a parent loses a job, files for modification, and has an equivalent job by the time it is heard, the order should not change because the circumstance that justified it no longer exists.
You have to file to get on the schedule, and that takes a while. The existing order stays in effect in the meantime and arrears accrue at the old number. Filing does not fix the amount immediately, but it fixes the date the change applies from, which is why filing promptly matters.
Almost always. Support is calculated in part on the number of days each parent has the child, so changing the schedule changes the number. That is frequently the real reason one side fights a custody modification.
Yes. The test is the same in either direction. Run the current numbers through the worksheet, and if the result differs from the existing order by fifteen percent or more, it can be modified.
Not always. For a parent who is unemployed or underemployed and whose income is at or below the federal poverty level, the significant variance threshold drops to seven and a half percent.
It can. The support formula shifts once the alternate residential parent exercises ninety-two or more days a year, so a real change in the days actually exercised can support a modification even without a fifteen percent income variance. Courts look at the days actually exercised, not just what the parenting plan says.
Free consultation. Call and find out whether you clear fifteen percent.