The state schedule, the parenting time threshold, and what gets added on top.
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Estimate
Enter both parents’ gross monthly income before taxes, the number of children, and how many days a year the children spend with Parent B. Health insurance and work-related childcare are optional and are added on top of the basic obligation.
Parent A is the primary residential parent. Parent B is the parent who pays support. For a true even split, enter 182.5 days, which is what the state worksheet asks for.
Built from the Tennessee Department of Human Services Income Shares Worksheet, 2022 version 1.0, and the Child Support Schedule at Tenn. Comp. R. and Regs. 1240-02-04-.09. The parenting time adjustments use the worksheet formulas at Lines 5a and 6a, checked against the state worksheet cell by cell on October 9, 2026. Guidelines and official worksheet at tn.gov →
The Model
Tennessee uses an income shares model under Tenn. Comp. R. and Regs. 1240-02-04. The idea behind it is that a child should receive roughly the same share of parental income they would have received if the parents lived together.
Both parents’ gross monthly incomes are added together. Gross means before taxes, and it is broader than a paycheck. Wages, commissions, bonuses, overtime, self-employment income, pensions, Social Security, workers compensation, unemployment, and capital gains all count.
For a servicemember it is broader still. Rule 1240-02-04-.04(3)(a)(4) counts Basic Allowance for Housing, Basic Allowance for Subsistence and Variable Housing Allowance as income, so base pay alone produces a number that is too low. More on that on the military divorce page.
The Child Support Schedule at Rule 1240-02-04-.09 is a table. The row is the combined income and the column is the number of children. Where they meet is the Basic Child Support Obligation, the total amount the state expects both parents together to spend on the children each month.
Each parent is responsible for a share of that figure proportional to their share of the combined income. A parent who earns sixty percent of the combined income is responsible for sixty percent of the obligation.
The Threshold
This is the part that surprises people, and it is the reason parenting time and child support get negotiated together.
At 92 days a year or more with the alternate residential parent, the guidelines assume that parent is carrying duplicated household costs, and the obligation gets a credit for it. The credit is built from two things, not one: a multiplier that climbs with the number of days, and the other parent’s share of the combined income. Both halves matter. The multiplier is what makes the credit small at 92 days and largest at equal time. The income share is what keeps it from wiping out support on its own.
That second half is where the common assumption breaks. At equal parenting time the credit works out to the obligation multiplied by the primary parent’s income share, while the paying parent still owes the obligation multiplied by their own. The two cancel only when the incomes are close to equal. When one parent earns meaningfully more, equal time reduces support but it does not end it.
No adjustment. This is treated as standard visitation.
The obligation can increase, on the theory that the other household is carrying more of the day to day cost.
What Gets Added
The schedule figure covers ordinary costs of raising a child. Two significant expenses sit outside it and get added on top, then divided between the parents in proportion to income.
The portion attributable to the children, not the whole family plan.
Daycare and after-school care a parent needs in order to work. Whoever actually pays the expense gets credit for it in the calculation.
Private school tuition is the one people ask about most, and it is not a standard add-on. Neither are extracurricular fees, travel, or a car. A court can order them, but that is a deviation from the guideline amount, and a judge has to make written findings to support it.
That matters more than it sounds. A $15,000 a year tuition bill is $1,250 a month, which on many cases is larger than the support payment itself. If private school is going to continue, it belongs in the parenting plan as its own agreed provision rather than left to be argued about later.
And one thing that gets miscategorized: tuition is not work-related childcare. Before-school and after-school care is. Tuition is not.
Uninsured medical costs. Deductibles, co-pays, dental, orthodontia, counseling, and vision are not in the schedule figure and are not usually built into the monthly number. They are the responsibility of both parents and are normally addressed as their own provision in the order.
Worked Examples
The same math, run four different ways. Parent A is the primary residential parent in each one.
Parent A earns $4,000 a month and is the primary residential parent. Parent B earns $2,500 and has the child 80 days a year. No insurance or childcare entered.
Parent A earns $10,000 and is the primary residential parent. Parent B earns $30,000 and has the child 80 days a year. Parent A pays $200 a month for the child’s health insurance.
The ceiling is doing the work here. On the math alone Parent B’s share came to $2,423, but one child caps at $2,100, so that is the order. Anything past it has to come from a specific request and a finding, not from the worksheet.
Parent A earns $4,000 a month, Parent B earns $8,000, two children, and the time is split down the middle, entered as 182.5 days, which is how the state worksheet records an even split. This is the one people get wrong most often.
Equal time, and support is still $581 a month. The credit is large, but it is sized to Parent A’s 33% share of the income rather than to Parent B’s 67% obligation, so it cannot cancel the obligation out. Run the same two children at $6,000 and $6,000 and the answer does fall to zero, because then the shares match exactly. It is the income difference that produces the payment, not the calendar.
Parent A earns $900 a month and Parent B earns $700, with one child.
When the Estimate Misses
A calculator sees what you type. A worksheet sees the whole case. The common reasons the real number lands somewhere else:
A parent supporting other children, in the home or under another order, may get a credit that changes the adjusted income.
If a court finds a parent is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed, it can assign income that parent is not actually earning and run the numbers on that instead.
Self-employment income is calculated differently from wages, and what a business shows on a tax return is frequently not what the guidelines treat as income.
A self-support reserve protects a minimum amount of income for a low earning parent, which can reduce the obligation below what the schedule would otherwise produce.
A court can deviate from the guideline amount if it makes written findings supporting it. That is not common and it is not automatic.
Scope
The estimate is built from the Department of Human Services Income Shares Worksheet and the state Child Support Schedule. It runs the same core math the worksheet runs, and it leaves out several lines that only apply in some cases.
Both parents’ gross monthly income, the full Child Support Schedule including the shaded low income range, the percentage formula above $28,250 of combined income, each parent’s proportional share, the parenting time reduction at 92 days or more, the parenting time increase at 68 days or fewer, the statutory ceiling on the order itself, the children’s health insurance premium, and work-related childcare with credit to whoever pays.
Under the toggle for more detail it also handles recurring uninsured medical expenses, self-employment tax, credits for other children living with a parent, and credits for other children a parent supports but does not live with. The credit is seventy-five percent of a theoretical order computed on that parent’s own income, which is how the Credit Worksheet does it.
It applies the self-support reserve as well. When the paying parent’s income falls in the shaded range of the schedule, their share is capped using their own income alone.
Federal benefits paid on behalf of the child, which the worksheet both adds to income and credits against the final order. Split parenting, where each parent is the primary residential parent for different children. Non-parent caretaker cases. Retroactive support. And any deviation a court makes on written findings.
Memphis and Shelby County
Support is calculated the same way statewide, but it is argued in a particular courtroom, and which courtroom depends on whether the parents were married.
For married parents it runs with the divorce in circuit or chancery court. For parents who were never married it runs through Shelby County Juvenile Court along with parentage and a parenting plan.
If an order already exists and the numbers have changed, that is a modification, and it takes a filing. Nothing adjusts on its own.
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
Tennessee uses an income shares model under Tenn. Comp. R. and Regs. 1240-02-04. Both parents' gross monthly incomes are combined, a Basic Child Support Obligation is read off a state schedule based on that combined figure and the number of children, and each parent is responsible for a share of it proportional to their share of the combined income.
Gross income before taxes, which is broader than most people expect. Wages, salary, commissions, bonuses, overtime, self-employment income, severance, pensions, Social Security benefits, workers compensation, unemployment, and capital gains are all included.
It is a dollar figure from the state's Child Support Schedule at Rule 1240-02-04-.09. You find the row for the parents' combined adjusted gross income and the column for the number of children, and that is the total the schedule expects both parents to spend on the children each month.
The published schedule runs to $28,250 of combined monthly income. Above that the guidelines use a percentage formula on the excess, which this calculator applies.
The threshold is 92 days per year with the alternate residential parent. At 92 days or more the obligation gets a credit for duplicated household expenses. The credit is a multiplier that grows with the number of days, applied to the schedule obligation and then scaled by the other parent's share of the combined income. Between 69 and 91 days there is no adjustment at all. At 68 days or fewer the obligation can increase instead.
No, and this is probably the single most common misunderstanding about Tennessee child support. Equal parenting time produces the largest parenting time credit the guidelines allow, but that credit is sized to the other parent's share of the combined income, so it only cancels the obligation when the two incomes are close to equal. Two parents at $6,000 each with equal time land at nothing. A parent earning $8,000 against a parent earning $4,000, with the same equal time and two children, still pays about $581 a month. The payment comes from the income difference, not from the calendar.
Yes, and it is separate from the $28,250 income cap. The guidelines put a ceiling on the presumptive order itself: $2,100 a month for one child, $3,200 for two, $4,100 for three, $4,600 for four, and $5,000 for five or more. On high incomes the schedule math often runs past that ceiling, and the ceiling wins. Going above it takes a specific request and a written finding from the court, not the worksheet.
More than twelve hours within a twenty-four hour period, not a calendar day. Only one day of credit can be taken in any twenty-four hour period.
No, and this is where people underestimate. The children's health insurance premium and work-related childcare are added on top of the basic obligation and divided between the parents in proportion to income. The parent who actually pays the expense gets credit for it.
Deductibles, co-pays, dental, orthodontia, counseling, vision, and other medical costs not covered by insurance are not in the schedule figure. They are the financial responsibility of both parents and are usually addressed separately in the order.
The schedule carries a presumptive minimum of $100 per month, with exceptions.
Not this one. Courts use the official Child Support Worksheet, and the completed worksheet becomes part of the record, filed as an exhibit or attached to the order. This calculator estimates the same math so you know roughly where you stand before you walk in.
Usually because of something the estimate cannot see. Credits for other children in the home, self-employment income calculated differently than you entered it, imputed income where a parent is voluntarily underemployed, the self-support reserve at low incomes, or a deviation the court found appropriate.
Yes. A modification requires a significant variance between the current order and what the guidelines would produce now, and it is not automatic. It takes a filing.
Free consultation. Bring what you have and we will tell you where you actually stand.