Child support in Florida.
What the state’s own guideline says, where the number comes from, and the one figure that moves it more than anything you will argue about.
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Florida combines both parents' monthly net incomes, finds the total support amount on a statutory table, and splits it between the parents by their share of that combined income. Childcare and health insurance get added on top before the split. The result is presumed correct, and a judge needs a reason on paper to move more than five percent away from it.
How Florida works out the number
Authority: Fla. Stat. § 61.30 (Child support guidelines; retroactive child support)Yes, and the threshold is low. A "substantial amount of time" means the child spends "at least 20 percent of the overnights of the year" with the parent — roughly 73 nights. Once that is met, the basic obligation is multiplied by 1.5 and each parent's share is recalculated using the percentage of overnights the child spends with the other parent.
Use the state’s own calculator, not ours
Florida publishes this itself, free. It is called Florida Family Law Rules of Procedure Form 12.902(e), Child Support Guidelines Worksheet. We are not going to build a competing calculator and ask you to trust it — this is the one a judge will recognize.
Open the Florida calculator →What goes into the calculation
What counts as income
Gross income first, then statutory deductions to reach net. Gross income includes "salary or wages"; "bonuses, commissions, allowances, overtime, tips, and other similar payments"; business income from self-employment, partnership or independent contracts (gross receipts minus ordinary and necessary expenses); disability and workers' compensation benefits; unemployment compensation; pension and retirement payments; Social Security; spousal support received; interest and dividends; rental income; and royalties, trusts and estates. Overtime, bonuses and a second job are all in. Self-employment income is computed after ordinary and necessary business expenses, not gross receipts.
When a judge can treat you as earning more
If a parent is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed, the court must impute income based on "recent work history, occupational qualifications, and prevailing earnings level" in the community. If the parent does not provide income information or fails to participate, there is a "rebuttable presumption" of income "equivalent to the median income of year-round full-time workers" from Census data. A court may not impute using income records more than five years old, or a level of income the parent has never actually earned.
If you do not earn much
For an obligor whose income falls below the bottom of the guidelines schedule, the order is "the lesser of the obligor parent's actual dollar share" of the total obligation or "90 percent of the difference between the obligor parent's monthly net income and the current poverty guidelines" for a single person.
Childcare and health insurance
Work-related childcare costs and the child's health insurance premium are added to the basic obligation before it is divided, so both parents share them in proportion to income. Whichever parent actually pays them gets that amount deducted back out of their own share.
Private school, special needs, activities
Handled as deviation grounds under § 61.30(11). The listed factors include "extraordinary medical, psychological, educational, or dental expenses" and the "special needs" of a child with a disability "that have traditionally been met within the family budget." Private school and activities are not separate line items on the worksheet.
When a judge can depart from the number
The court may go up or down by "plus or minus 5 percent" from the guideline figure after considering the relevant factors, with no special findings. Anything beyond 5 percent requires "written findings explaining why ordering payment of such guideline amount would be unjust or inappropriate."
Two surprises. First, the 20 percent overnight threshold is easy to cross — an every-other-weekend-plus-a-weeknight schedule can get you there — and crossing it changes the math meaningfully because the whole obligation is multiplied by 1.5 first. Second, Florida can reach back up to 24 months before you even filed. If you separated two years ago and never got an order, an initial order can carry a substantial retroactive bill.
Later on
When it ends
At 18. Fla. Stat. § 743.07(2) lets a court extend support past 18 in two situations: where "such dependency is because of a mental or physical incapacity which began prior to such person reaching majority," or where the person "is dependent in fact, is between the ages of 18 and 19, and is still in high school, performing in good faith with a reasonable expectation of graduation before the age of 19."
College and support after 18
No general college obligation. Florida courts cannot order a parent to pay college expenses for a healthy adult child. The only statutory extensions past 18 are the two situations in Fla. Stat. § 743.07(2) — an adult child whose incapacity began before 18, and an 18-year-old finishing high school before turning 19.
Changing the amount later
Under § 61.30(1)(b), the difference between the existing order and the amount the guidelines produce today must be "at least 15 percent or $50, whichever amount is greater."
How far back a change can reach
Generous by national standards. A court may award support retroactive "to the date when the parents did not reside together," and that retroactive period may not exceed "24 months preceding the filing of the petition."
If someone stops paying
The Florida Child Support Program publishes that it may begin action to suspend a driver license and vehicle registration if a parent does not pay or make contact — "You must take action within 20 days of the date of the notice" — and separately may suspend business, professional or recreational licenses, where "You must take actions within 30 days of the date of the notice." Support orders are collected through income withholding.
Compare all fifty states
The overnight thresholds, the ending ages and the college rules, side by side.
The rest of what we have written about Florida. Every figure is quoted from Florida’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.
- The divorce kit
- Modifying support after divorce
- What it costs to file
- Child custody
- Guardians ad litem and child representation
- Travel, custody and relocation
- Alimony
- Property, support and legal fees
- Protective orders
- Changing your name back
- Legal help you can afford
- Verified professionals
- What Divorce Actually Costs
- What Happens to the House in a Florida Divorce