Child support in Maine.
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 stateMaine
Maine adds both parents' annual gross incomes, reads the basic support entitlement off a statutory child support table (which varies by the children's ages), then adds childcare, health insurance premiums and predictable extraordinary medical costs. That total is divided between the parents in proportion to their incomes, and the parent who is not the primary care provider pays their share in money.
How Maine works out the number
Authority: 19-A M.R.S. ch. 63, Child Support Guidelines (§§ 2001-2010), principally § 2001 (definitions), § 2006 (support guidelines and computation), § 2007 (deviation) and § 2009 (modification)Maine adjusts for "substantially equal care" rather than counting overnights. Under § 2006(5)(D-1), when the parties provide substantially equal care but have unequal incomes, an "enhanced support entitlement" is calculated for each child, divided in proportion to income, and the higher earner pays the lower of (a) the difference between the two obligations or (b) what the presumptive basic obligation would have been if the other parent had primary care. The statute does not set a number of overnights that qualifies as substantially equal care.
Use the state’s own calculator, not ours
Maine publishes this itself, free. It is called Child Support Worksheet (FM-040), with the Supplemental Worksheet for substantially equal care (FM-040-A) and the Child Support Affidavit (FM-050). 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 Maine calculator →What goes into the calculation
What counts as income
Section 2001(5) defines gross income as "income from an ongoing source, including, but not limited to, salaries, wages, commissions, royalties, bonuses, dividends, severance pay, pensions, interest, trust funds, annuities, capital gains, social security benefits, disability insurance benefits, prizes, workers' compensation benefits" and more. Bonuses and commissions are named explicitly; wages from any employer, including a second job, are covered by the general language. Self-employment income is net receipts — gross receipts minus ordinary and necessary expenses. Expense reimbursements that reduce a party's personal living expenses also count.
When a judge can treat you as earning more
The statute folds this into the definition of income: "Gross income may include the difference between the amount a party is earning and that party's earning capacity when the party voluntarily becomes or remains unemployed or underemployed, if sufficient evidence is introduced concerning a party's current earning capacity." The burden is on the party asking for imputation to put real evidence of earning capacity in front of the court.
If you do not earn much
"The child support table includes a self-support reserve for obligors earning $22,800 or less per year." When the non-primary care provider's annual gross income, before adjustments, falls in the self-support reserve for that number of children, "the amount listed in the self-support reserve multiplied by the number of children in the age category is the nonprimary care provider's support obligation," regardless of the parents' combined income.
Childcare and health insurance
Both are added to the basic support entitlement before the split. "The total basic support obligation is determined by adding the child care costs, health insurance premiums and extraordinary medical expenses to the basic support entitlement." Childcare means "the actual child care costs incurred by the parties for each child… that are related to that party's employment, education or training and are reasonable or customary in the area." Health insurance means "the cost of adding the child to existing coverage or the difference between self-only and family coverage."
Private school, special needs, activities
Extraordinary medical expenses are defined in § 2001 as "recurring, uninsured medical expenses in excess of $250 per child or group of children per calendar year" that can reasonably be predicted — copayments, deductibles, orthodontia, eye care, prescriptions and counseling for a diagnosed disorder. Private school and special educational needs are not add-ons; they come in through the § 2007 deviation list, which also includes the child's educational needs, non-income-producing assets over $10,000, and transportation costs exceeding 15 percent of the support amount.
When a judge can depart from the number
The guideline amount is rebuttably presumed correct. Under § 2007 a court may deviate only if applying the guidelines would be "inequitable or unjust" because of one or more of the enumerated criteria, and the court must make findings. The criteria run to more than a dozen items, including the child's financial resources, each party's resources and needs, the standard of living the child would have had, the child's physical and emotional condition and educational needs, tax consequences, and support of other dependents.
Two things worth knowing. Maine's support table is age-banded, so the number can go up as your child gets older even if nobody's income changed. And Maine's self-support reserve is a hard floor: if the paying parent earns $22,800 a year or less, the reserve amount governs no matter how much the other parent makes.
Later on
When it ends
19-A M.R.S. § 1653 keeps a support order in force as to each child until the order is changed or the child "attains 18 years of age." For orders issued after January 1, 1990, if the child turns 18 while attending secondary school, "the order remains in force until the child graduates, withdraws or is expelled from secondary school or attains 19 years of age, whichever occurs first."
College and support after 18
No. Maine's statute contains no provision letting a court order a parent to pay college or other post-secondary expenses. The obligation stops at 18, or at high school graduation or 19 for a child still in secondary school. Parents can still agree to share college costs, and a written agreement can be made part of the judgment.
Changing the amount later
Under § 2009, a variation of more than 15 percent between the current order and what the guidelines would produce today is itself a substantial change of circumstances. Once three years have passed since the last order, a party may seek a review without having to prove changed circumstances at all.
How far back a change can reach
Modifications reach back "only from the date that notice of a petition for modification has been served upon the opposing party." There is no reaching back to when your income actually dropped, so serve promptly.
If someone stops paying
Maine uses immediate income withholding under 19-A M.R.S. § 2306, and the Department of Health and Human Services can establish support obligations administratively under § 2304, including past support and an obligation to provide health insurance coverage.
What we could not confirm
- We could not confirm from a Maine government source whether interest accrues on unpaid support, or the full list of enforcement tools such as license suspension. Maine's Division of Support Enforcement and Recovery can tell you what applies to your case.
Compare all fifty states
The overnight thresholds, the ending ages and the college rules, side by side.