Child support in Indiana.
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.
See a different stateIndiana
Indiana works in weekly numbers. Both parents' weekly gross incomes are combined and adjusted, the total is looked up on the Guideline Schedules for Weekly Support Payments, and childcare and health insurance are added. Each parent owes their percentage share, and the parent with fewer overnights gets a credit for the time the children are with them.
How Indiana works out the number
Authority: Indiana Child Support Rules and Guidelines, adopted by the Indiana Supreme Court (Child Support Rules 1-4 and Guidelines 1-8, including Guideline 3 income, Guideline 6 parenting time credit, and Guideline 8 extraordinary expenses)Yes, and it starts early. The Parenting Time Credit table begins at "52 overnights annually or the equivalent of alternate weekends of parenting time only" and rises to 181-183 overnights for equal parenting. The credit is not automatic: "The court should determine if application of the credit will jeopardize a parent's ability to support the child(ren)," and a parent who does not actually exercise the scheduled time "may be subject to a reduction or loss of the credit." Merely giving a child a place to sleep to collect the credit is prohibited.
Use the state’s own calculator, not ours
Indiana publishes this itself, free. It is called Child Support Obligation Worksheet; plus the Parenting Time Credit Worksheet and the Post-Secondary Education 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 Indiana calculator →What goes into the calculation
What counts as income
"Weekly Gross Income" is income from any source except means-tested public assistance (TANF, SSI, food stamps). It includes salaries, wages, commissions, bonuses, overtime, partnership distributions, dividends, severance, pensions, interest, trust income, annuities, Social Security, workers' compensation, unemployment, disability insurance, gifts, inheritance and alimony received. Self-employment income is "gross receipts minus ordinary and necessary expenses," and the self-employed may deduct the portion of FICA that exceeds what an employee earning the same amount would pay. In-kind benefits count where they are "regular and continuing payments" that reduce housing, utility or grocery costs — a company car or free housing, for example. Overtime and bonuses are includable but fact-sensitive, and the commentary warns that "it is not the intent of the Guidelines to require a party who has worked sixty (60) hour weeks to continue doing so indefinitely."
When a judge can treat you as earning more
"If a court finds a parent is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed without just cause, child support shall be calculated based on a determination of potential income." Potential income is set from "the obligor's employment and earnings history, occupational qualifications, educational attainment, literacy, age, health, criminal record or other employment barriers, prevailing job opportunities, and earnings levels in the community." With no work history or education, income may be set at federal minimum wage, "provided the resulting child support amount is set in such a manner that the obligor is not denied a means of self-support at a subsistence level." Potential income is not assessed against an incarcerated parent.
If you do not earn much
There is no minimum order and no fixed self-support reserve dollar figure. "The Guideline's schedules for weekly support payments do not provide an amount of support for couples with combined weekly adjusted income of less than $100.00. Consequently, the Guidelines do not establish a minimum support obligation." Instead the court looks at "the obligor's income and living expenses to determine the maximum amount of child support that can reasonably be ordered without denying the obligor the means for self support at a minimum subsistence level." A $0.00 order is expressly permitted in appropriate cases.
Childcare and health insurance
Both are added to the basic obligation and then credited back to the parent who actually pays. Work-related childcare (Line 4A) covers care "incurred due to employment or job search," must be reasonable, and is annualized and divided by 52. Health insurance premiums (Line 4B) are added "whenever either parent actually incurs the premium expense," counting only the children's portion — the difference between single and family coverage. Each paying parent then takes a credit on Line 7.
Private school, special needs, activities
Guideline 8 splits educational costs into ordinary (textbook rental, lab fees, lunches — paid by the custodial parent out of the base support) and extraordinary, meaning "costs that significantly exceed the public school education expense for the particular child." Private school tuition falls in the extraordinary category. "The cost of participating in elective school activities such as sports, performing arts and clubs, as well as related extracurricular activities" is treated as optional and handled separately from base support.
When a judge can depart from the number
"There shall be a rebuttable presumption that the amount of the award which would result from the application of the Indiana Child Support Guidelines is the correct amount of child support to be awarded." To depart, "the court shall enter a written finding articulating the factual circumstances supporting that conclusion." Agreed orders are held to the same standard: "A reason for the deviation must be included; a simple statement the parties agree to the deviation is not sufficient under the Guidelines."
Two things catch Indiana parents off guard. Support runs to 19, not 18, and a court can additionally order you to help pay for college — that is unusual and it is real. And when your oldest child ages out, the order does not shrink by itself; if you keep paying the old amount without filing to modify, that is on you.
Later on
When it ends
Indiana ends the child support duty at 19, not 18 — the child is emancipated by operation of law at nineteen (Ind. Code § 31-16-6-6). It can end sooner if the child marries, enters the military, or is no longer under a parent's care, and a court may terminate support for a child over 18 who has not attended school for four months and is supporting themself through employment. Importantly, when the oldest of several children turns 19, "the total obligation will not decrease" on its own — someone has to file.
College and support after 18
Yes. Indiana is one of the states where a court can order parents to contribute to post-secondary education. The Guidelines include a Post-Secondary Education Worksheet for a child "living away from home while attending school," and the resulting adjustment flows onto Line 7 of the main worksheet. Ind. Code § 31-16-6-6 also governs petitions for educational needs, and the deadline for asking is tied to the child's age — do not assume you can file after the child is well into college.
Changing the amount later
"The provisions of a child support order may be modified only if there is a substantial and continuing change of circumstances which makes the present order unreasonable or the amount of support ordered at least twelve (12) months earlier differs from the Guideline amount presently computed by more than twenty percent (20%)."
How far back a change can reach
"The modification of a support obligation may only relate back to the date the petition to modify was filed, and not an earlier date." Two narrow exceptions exist: where the parties agreed to and carried out an alternative payment method that substantially complied with the decree, and where the paying parent took the child into their home and assumed full custody and control.
If someone stops paying
The Indiana Department of Child Services lists wage withholding from earnings, unemployment and other benefits; interception of tax refunds, lottery winnings and insurance settlements; credit bureau reporting; suspension of driver's, professional and hunting/fishing licenses; vehicle liens and bank asset seizure; new-hire cross-matching; and passport denial or revocation.
What we could not confirm
- We could not confirm from an Indiana government source whether interest accrues on unpaid support or at what rate, or the exact filing deadline for a college-expense petition. Ask the clerk or your attorney about the educational-support filing deadline early — missing it is permanent.
- 1 official page we tried to read refused automated access. We did not try to get around the block, so some detail above comes from a different official source rather than the one we would have preferred.
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 Indiana. Every figure is quoted from Indiana’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.