How Child Support Works in Texas

The core of a Texas child support order is one multiplication. Take the paying parent's monthly net resources and apply a percentage fixed by the number of children. The Family Code defines net resources down to the last deduction. Everything else in a support case orbits that calculation: what counts as a resource, the ceiling where the percentages stop, the medical and dental obligations stacked on top, and the findings a judge must put in writing to order anything different.

The percentages

Section 154.125 of the Texas Family Code sets the schedule, and courts must presumptively apply it whenever the paying parent's monthly net resources are equal to or greater than the low-income threshold and not greater than the guideline maximum:

A separate schedule protects low earners. When the paying parent's monthly net resources are less than $1,000, section 154.125(c) presumptively applies reduced percentages: 15 percent for one child, 20 for two, 25 for three, 30 for four, 35 for five, and no less than the five-child amount for six or more. Each tier sits five points below the standard schedule.

Both tables assume all the children live in one household. A parent with a legal duty to support children in more than one household uses the adjusted computations in sections 154.128 and 154.129 instead, which credit the support owed to the children who are not before the court.

What counts as net resources

Net resources is a statutory term, not a synonym for take-home pay, and section 154.062 defines it in two moves: a wide gate in, a narrow list of subtractions out.

In: 100 percent of all wage and salary income and other compensation for personal services, expressly including commissions, overtime pay, tips, and bonuses. Also interest, dividends, and royalties. Self-employment income. Net rental income after operating expenses and mortgage payments. Then a catch-all for all other income actually being received, which the statute spells out to include severance pay, retirement benefits, pensions, trust income, annuities, capital gains, social security benefits other than supplemental security income, United States Department of Veterans Affairs disability benefits other than non-service-connected disability pension benefits, unemployment benefits, disability and workers' compensation benefits, interest income from notes regardless of the source, gifts and prizes, spousal maintenance, and alimony.

Out: return of principal or capital, accounts receivable, benefits paid under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program or another federal public assistance program, and foster care payments.

From what remains, the court deducts exactly six items: social security taxes, federal income tax computed for a single person claiming one exemption and the standard deduction, state income tax, union dues, the cost of court-ordered health, dental, or cash medical support for the child, and nondiscretionary retirement contributions if the parent does not pay social security taxes. The federal tax deduction is a standardized figure, not the parent's actual filing situation. To keep that computation uniform, section 154.061 provides that whenever feasible, gross income should first be computed on an annual basis and then recalculated to an average monthly figure, and it requires the state's Title IV-D agency, the Office of the Attorney General, to publish tax charts every year that convert monthly gross income to net.

1. Average the income

   Compute annual gross income from every source section 154.062(b) reaches, then divide to get average monthly gross income.

2. Take the statutory deductions

   Subtract the six items listed in section 154.062(d), using the Attorney General's current tax charts for the tax figures. The result is monthly net resources.

3. Apply the cap

   If net resources exceed the published guideline maximum, carry only the capped amount forward.

4. Multiply

   Apply the section 154.125 percentage for the number of children. That product is the guideline amount the court presumptively orders.

The cap, and who adjusts it

The percentages do not climb forever. Section 154.125(a) designs the guidelines for parents whose monthly net resources do not exceed a maximum amount, and it hands the number itself to the Title IV-D agency, which must publish it in the Texas Register. Under subsection (a-1), the Office of the Attorney General recomputes the figure every six years to reflect inflation, rounds it to the nearest $50, and publishes the adjusted amount to take effect September 1 of the adjustment year.

The current figure: effective September 1, 2025, the adjusted maximum is $11,700 in monthly net resources, as published by the Office of the Attorney General and restated in its official 2026 tax charts.

Above that line the arithmetic changes character. Under section 154.126, the court presumptively applies the percentages only to the first $11,700 of net resources. Any support beyond that presumptive amount is discretionary and depends on the parties' incomes and the proven needs of the child. Proven is the operative word: the presumptive award is subtracted from the child's proven total needs, the remainder is allocated between the parents according to their circumstances, and the paying parent can never be ordered to cover more than the greater of the presumptive amount or 100 percent of those proven needs. A high income alone does not raise the number. Evidence of the child's needs does.

The formula, worked through

Two examples show how the pieces fit. Both are illustrations of the statutory arithmetic only, not predictions of what any court would order in a real case.

A parent with $5,000 in monthly net resources and two children before the court: $5,000 falls under the cap, so the standard schedule applies, and 25 percent of $5,000 is $1,250 per month as the guideline amount.

A parent with $20,000 in monthly net resources and one child: the percentage applies only to the capped $11,700, so 20 percent yields a presumptive $2,340 per month. The remaining $8,300 of net resources draws no percentage at all. Support above $2,340 would have to come through section 154.126, on proof of the child's needs.

Medical and dental support ride on top

The guideline percentage is not the whole obligation. In any proceeding that orders periodic child support, section 154.181 requires the court to also render a medical support order, and section 154.1815 requires a dental support order in a suit affecting the parent-child relationship. Section 154.182 sets the priorities: health insurance available through a parent's employment comes first if it is available at reasonable cost, and if no insurance is available at reasonable cost, the paying parent owes cash medical support instead. The statute defines reasonable cost as insurance costing no more than 9 percent of the paying parent's annual resources for health coverage and no more than 1.5 percent for dental.

Section 154.183 then removes any doubt about how these amounts relate to the percentage calculation. Ordered medical and dental support is in addition to guideline child support, is itself a child support obligation, and can be enforced by every means available for child support, including withholding from earnings.

How long support runs

Under section 154.001, the court may order support until the child turns 18 or graduates from high school, whichever comes later. Support can end earlier if the child is emancipated through marriage, through a court order removing the disabilities of minority, or by other operation of law, or on the child's death. For a child who is disabled as the chapter defines it, support may be ordered for an indefinite period.

When a court leaves the formula

The guideline amount is a presumption, not a command. Section 154.122 presumes the guideline figure is reasonable and in the child's best interest, and section 154.123 lets the court order a different amount when the evidence rebuts that presumption. The statute lists seventeen factors a court considers, among them the age and needs of the child, each parent's ability to contribute, the amount of time each parent has possession of the child, child care expenses required for a parent to keep working, whether either parent has the managing conservatorship or actual physical custody of another child, travel costs to exercise possession, debts either party carries, and a final catch-all for any other reason consistent with the child's best interest.

Departure carries a paperwork price. When the ordered amount varies from the guideline computation, section 154.130 requires the court to state in the order the paying parent's monthly net resources, the percentage applied, and the specific reasons the ordered amount differs from the guideline figure. A party can also require the findings by asking for them, either through an oral request in open court during the hearing or through a written request filed before the final order is signed and not later than 20 days after the date the order is rendered. Parents can also agree in writing to an amount that departs from the guidelines under section 154.124, and the court will render an order on the agreement if it finds the agreement in the child's best interest.

That gap between the formula and the final order is the part to hold onto. The percentages produce a starting number that is presumed to be reasonable and in the best interest of the child. The judgment at the edges is where a real case can land somewhere the chart alone would not predict.

A support order also rarely stands alone. An existing order can be revisited later under the standards covered in the guide to modifying custody or support, and the conservatorship and possession orders that surround support each have their own guide in the Texas family law section. Like every guide published by Texas Legal Answers, this one links each claim to the official statute text so every percentage and figure above can be checked at the source.