Child support in New York.
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 stateNew York
New York's Child Support Standards Act adds both parents' incomes together, applies a flat percentage based on how many children there are, and then makes the non-custodial parent pay their pro rata share of that number. The percentages are 17% for one child, 25% for two, 29% for three, 31% for four, and no less than 35% for five or more. Crucially, the percentages are mandatory only up to a published combined-income cap; above the cap the judge decides whether to keep applying the percentage or to use a list of statutory factors instead.
How New York works out the number
Authority: Domestic Relations Law § 240(1-b) (matrimonial cases) and Family Court Act § 413(1) (Family Court cases) – together the Child Support Standards Act. The combined parental income cap is set by Social Services Law § 111-i(2)(b) and published annually by the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance.New York sets no overnight threshold and has no built-in shared-custody formula. Parenting time enters only through the deviation factors, which include 'extraordinary expenses incurred by the non-custodial parent in exercising visitation' and 'expenses incurred by the non-custodial parent in extended visitation provided that the custodial parent's expenses are substantially reduced as a result thereof' – and only where the child is not on public assistance.
There is a worksheet, but no calculator
New York publishes Child Support Standards Chart, published annually by the NYS Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. We could not reach the agency's website to give 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
Income starts from 'gross (total) income as should have been or should be reported in the most recent federal income tax return' – so wages, overtime, bonuses and second-job pay are all in, because they are all on the return. Added to that: investment income; deferred compensation; workers' compensation, disability, unemployment, Social Security, veterans benefits, pensions, fellowships, annuities, and maintenance actually received. For the self-employed, the statute adds back 'any depreciation deduction greater than depreciation calculated on a straight-line basis' and 'entertainment and travel allowances deducted from business income to the extent said allowances reduce personal expenditures.' Subtracted before the percentage is applied: unreimbursed employee business expenses, maintenance actually paid, child support actually paid for other children, public assistance, SSI, New York City or Yonkers income taxes actually paid, and FICA.
When a judge can treat you as earning more
A court 'may attribute or impute income from such other resources as may be available to the parent,' including non-income-producing assets, perquisites like meals, lodging, memberships and cars, fringe benefits, and 'money, goods, or services provided by relatives and friends.' Income may also be imputed 'based upon the parent's former resources or income, if the court determines that a parent has reduced resources or income in order to reduce or avoid' support – but 'incarceration shall not be considered voluntary unemployment.' Any imputation 'shall be accompanied by specific written findings identifying the basis or bases for such determination,' weighing assets, residence, employment and earning history, job skills, education, literacy, age, health, criminal record and other employment barriers, record of seeking work, the local job market, and the needs and care of the children.
If you do not earn much
There is a two-step floor. If the basic obligation 'would reduce the non-custodial parent's income below the poverty income guidelines amount for a single person,' the obligation 'shall be twenty-five dollars per month.' If it would drop that parent below the self-support reserve but not below the poverty line, the obligation 'shall be fifty dollars per month or the difference between the non-custodial parent's income and the self-support reserve, whichever is greater.' The self-support reserve is defined as '135 percent of the poverty income guidelines amount for a single person' and is revised every March 1. There is also arrears protection: where the parent's income is at or below the poverty guideline, 'unpaid child support arrears in excess of five hundred dollars shall not accrue.'
Childcare and health insurance
Where the custodial parent works, or is in school or vocational training the court finds will lead to employment, and pays for child care as a result, reasonable child care expenses 'shall be prorated in the same proportion as each parent's income is to the combined parental income' and added on. Where the custodial parent is only looking for work, the court 'may' apportion child care. Health insurance premiums are prorated the same way – added to the obligation if the custodial parent carries the coverage, deducted if the non-custodial parent does. Where insurance is unavailable and the children qualify for Medicaid, the court orders cash medical support, capped at 5% of the paying parent's gross income.
Private school, special needs, activities
The statute has a specific hook: 'where the court determines … that the present or future provision of post-secondary, private, special, or enriched education for the child is appropriate, the court may award educational expenses,' payable in a manner the court sets, including direct payment to the school. Special needs are also a listed factor for departing from the guideline number.
When a judge can depart from the number
The court must run the guideline calculation first. It may order something different only on a finding that the pro rata share is 'unjust or inappropriate,' based on ten listed factors: the financial resources of the parents and the child; the child's physical and emotional health and special needs; the standard of living the child would have enjoyed; tax consequences; non-monetary contributions; the educational needs of either parent; a substantial disparity in the parents' gross incomes; the needs of the paying parent's other children; extraordinary visitation expenses; and any other relevant factor. If the court departs, it 'shall set forth, in a written order, the factors it considered; the amount of each party's pro rata share of the basic child support obligation; and the reasons that the court did not order the basic child support obligation.' That written order 'may not be waived by either party or counsel.'
Two things surprise people. First, support runs to 21 in New York, not 18 – three extra years compared with most states, and college costs can be ordered on top of that. Second, the percentage is not applied to unlimited income: there is a published combined-income cap, and how a judge handles income above the cap is where most of the fighting happens in higher-earning cases.
Later on
When it ends
New York runs longer than almost anywhere else. Child support means a sum for 'care, maintenance and education of any unemancipated child under the age of twenty-one years.' So the default endpoint is the child's 21st birthday, unless the child is emancipated earlier.
College and support after 18
Yes. Beyond the automatic support to 21, the court may award educational expenses for 'post-secondary, private, special, or enriched education' under DRL § 240(1-b)(c)(7) and FCA § 413(1)(c)(7) where it finds that appropriate, having regard for the circumstances of the parties and the best interests of the child.
Changing the amount later
Family Court Act § 451(3): a court may modify 'upon a showing of a substantial change in circumstances,' and 'incarceration shall not be considered voluntary unemployment.' In addition – unless the parties specifically opted out in a validly executed agreement – a court may modify where '(i) three years have passed since the order was entered, last modified or adjusted; or (ii) there has been a change in either party's gross income by fifteen percent or more since the order was entered, last modified, or adjusted.' A drop in income only counts 'unless it was involuntary and the party has made diligent attempts to secure employment commensurate with his or her education, ability, and experience.'
How far back a change can reach
New York is generous here compared with most states. Under FCA § 449(2), 'any order of child support made under this article shall be effective as of the earlier of the date of the filing of the petition therefor,' or, where the children are on public assistance, the date their eligibility began. Retroactive support is treated as arrears and is enforceable like any other arrears. But arrears that accrued before you filed cannot be reduced or annulled – § 451 forbids a modification that 'reduce[s] or annul[s] child support arrears accrued prior to the making of an application.'
If someone stops paying
We could not reach New York's child support agency or court websites, so we are not stating anything about license suspension, income withholding practice, or interest on arrears. The one enforcement-adjacent rule we could confirm from the statute is that arrears above $500 do not accrue while a paying parent's income is at or below the federal poverty guideline for one person.
What we could not confirm
- We could not get the current dollar figures. The combined parental income cap and the current self-support reserve are published each spring by the state child support agency in the Child Support Standards Chart, and every New York government site that carries that chart refused to open for us. The statute tells us how the cap moves – it was $141,000 as of January 31, 2014 and 'beginning March first, two thousand sixteen and every two years thereafter, the combined parental income amount shall increase by the sum of the average annual percentage changes in the consumer price index for all urban consumers (CPI-U) … for the prior two years,' rounded to the nearest $1,000 – but we will not guess at the current number. Ask your county's Child Support Enforcement Unit or your lawyer for the current year's Child Support Standards Chart before you rely on any figure. New York also publishes an official online calculator through the court system, and we could not reach it to give you a link.
- 4 official pages 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.