Child support in Iowa.
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 stateIowa
Iowa combines both parents' net monthly incomes, finds the basic support amount on the Iowa Schedule of Basic Support Obligations for that combined figure and the number of children, and divides it between the parents in proportion to their incomes. The guidelines are court rules written by the Iowa Supreme Court, not statutes, and the resulting number is presumed correct.
How Iowa works out the number
Authority: Iowa Court Rules chapter 9 (Child Support Guidelines), rules 9.1 through 9.27, adopted by the Iowa Supreme Court; rule 9.4 creates the rebuttable presumptionRule 9.9 gives an extraordinary visitation credit once court-ordered visitation exceeds 127 days a year: 128–147 days is a 15 percent credit, 148–166 days is 20 percent, and 167 or more days (short of equally shared physical care) is 25 percent. The credit cannot reduce support below $50 for one child, $75 for two, or $100 for three or more.
There is a worksheet, but no calculator
Iowa publishes Child Support Guidelines Worksheet (rule 9.27) — Form 1 for parties, Form 2 for agreed cases or Child Support Services, and Form 3, the Child Financial Informat and expects you to work through it by hand. Anyone selling you a paid calculator for this state is selling you arithmetic the court already published.
What goes into the calculation
What counts as income
Rule 9.5 defines gross monthly income as "reasonably expected income from all sources," which is what captures overtime, bonuses and a second job. Self-employment income is "self-employment gross income less reasonable business expenses." Public assistance, the earned income tax credit and child support received for other children are excluded. Net income then subtracts federal and state income tax, Social Security and Medicare, mandatory occupational license fees, union dues, health insurance premiums for other children, cash medical support and prior child support orders.
When a judge can treat you as earning more
Under rule 9.11 a court may use earning capacity instead of actual earnings if a parent is "voluntarily unemployed or underemployed without just cause," but only after a written determination that "substantial injustice would occur" if actual earnings were used. Incarceration does not count as voluntary unemployment.
If you do not earn much
The Iowa Schedule of Basic Support Obligations in rule 9.26 has shaded areas (Areas A, B and C) that reduce the basic obligation for low-income paying parents. In the lowest band only the paying parent's income is used, and cash medical support is not ordered on top. The extraordinary visitation credit separately cannot push support below $50 for one child, $75 for two, or $100 for three or more.
Childcare and health insurance
Child care is not added into the basic number. Under rule 9.11A the receiving parent's child care costs are "grounds for requesting an upward variance," and only when the expense is "reasonably necessary to enable the parent to be employed, attend education or training activities, or conduct a job search" — with a rebuttable presumption of no variance for a child aged 13 or older. Health insurance is handled under rules 9.12 and 9.14: the court applies a Medical Support Table to decide whether coverage is available at "reasonable cost," and orders cash medical support if it is not.
When a judge can depart from the number
Rule 9.11 — the court must make written findings that the guideline amount would be "unjust or inappropriate," documenting the substantial injustice or the need for the adjustment.
The headline for Iowa parents is that court-ordered college support is gone. If you were counting on a postsecondary education subsidy as part of your settlement, the statute now forbids it for orders entered or pending on or after July 1, 2025. The second thing to know is the three-month retroactivity lag — file early, because a modification cannot reach back further than three months after your ex is served.
Later on
When it ends
Support runs through the child's minority, and continues for a child "between the ages of eighteen and nineteen years who is engaged full-time in completing high school graduation or equivalency requirements." It can also continue at any age for a child who is dependent because of a physical or mental disability.
College and support after 18
This changed, and it changed hard. Iowa Code § 598.21F now reads in its entirety: "The court shall not order either of the parties to pay a postsecondary education subsidy under a temporary order or final judgment or decree." The 2025 amendment (2025 Iowa Acts ch. 57) applies to support orders, decrees and judgments entered or pending on or after July 1, 2025. Iowa used to let courts order a college subsidy. It no longer does.
Changing the amount later
Iowa Code § 598.21C(1) requires "a substantial change in circumstances." Section 598.21C(2)(a) makes that automatic when the existing order "varies by ten percent or more from the amount which would be due pursuant to the most current child support guidelines."
How far back a change can reach
Iowa Code § 598.21C(5): a modification "may be retroactively modified only from three months after the date the notice of the pending petition for modification is served on the opposing party." That three-month lag is unusual — even filing promptly, you wait a quarter before the new number can take effect.
What we could not confirm
- We could not pull the exact dollar boundaries of the low-income shaded areas out of the schedule tables, and Iowa does not appear to publish a free public calculator — the worksheets live inside chapter 9 of the court rules. We also could not confirm Iowa's official rules on license suspension, income withholding or interest on arrears.
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 Iowa. Every figure is quoted from Iowa’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.