Child support in Virginia.
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 stateVirginia
Virginia adds both parents' monthly gross incomes, reads a basic obligation off the schedule in the statute, adds health care coverage and work-related child care, and then 'divided between the parents in the same proportion as their monthly gross incomes bear to their monthly combined gross income.' Which of six formulas applies depends on the custody arrangement — sole, split, shared, or combinations of those.
How Virginia works out the number
Authority: Va. Code Ann. § 20-108.2 (guideline), with § 20-108.1 (deviation factors and retroactivity), § 20-108 (modification), and § 20-124.2 (duration)Virginia's threshold is 90 days. 'Where a party has custody or visitation of a child or children for more than 90 days of the year… a shared custody child support amount based on the ratio in which the parents share the custody and visitation of any child or children shall be calculated.' The shared support need is the ordinary guideline figure 'multiplied by 1.4,' then multiplied by the other parent's custody share, with health coverage and child care added and each total multiplied by that parent's income share, and the two offset. There is a protective rule: the shared amount only applies if it is lower — 'The presumptive support to be paid shall be the shared custody support amount, unless a party affirmatively shows that the sole custody support amount… is less than the shared custody support amount. If so, the lesser amount shall be the support to be paid.' A 'day' is 24 hours, but where the parent with fewer overnights has an overnight of less than 24 hours, each parent is presumed to get half a day. If either parent's gross income is at or below 150% of the federal poverty level, the shared calculation is not presumptively correct and the court chooses between the sole and shared figures. And if a parent 'consistently fails to exercise custody or visitation in accordance with the parent's custody
Use the state’s own calculator, not ours
Virginia publishes this itself, free. It is called Child Support Guidelines Worksheet, Form DC-637, published by the Virginia Judicial System with instructions on the reverse. The statute requires that 'The. 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 Virginia calculator →What goes into the calculation
What counts as income
Section 20-108.2(C): 'gross income means all income from all sources, and shall include, but not be limited to, income from salaries, wages, commissions, royalties, bonuses, dividends, severance pay, pensions, interest, trust income, annuities, capital gains, social security benefits except as listed below, workers' compensation benefits, unemployment insurance benefits, disability insurance benefits, veterans' benefits, spousal support, rental income except as listed below, gifts, prizes, or awards.' Bonuses are in by name. Self-employment: 'Gross income shall be subject to deduction of reasonable business expenses for persons with income from self-employment, a partnership, or a closely held business,' and the party claiming the deduction bears the burden of proving it; one-half of self-employment tax paid is also deducted. Rental income is reduced by reasonable expenses but not by 'the cost of acquisition, depreciation, or the principal portion of any mortgage payment.' Virginia has a striking carve-out for second jobs and overtime taken to pay off arrears: gross income does not include 'Income received by the payor from secondary employment income not previously included in gross income, where the payor obtained the income to discharge a child support arrearage established by a court or administrative order and the payor is paying the arrearage pursuant to the order.'
When a judge can treat you as earning more
Section 20-108.1(B)(3) makes 'Imputed income to a party who is voluntarily unemployed or voluntarily underemployed' a listed deviation factor, with three guardrails: income 'may not be imputed to a custodial parent when a child is not in school, child care services are not available, and the cost of such child care services are not included in the computation'; imputation based on a change in employment 'shall be evaluated with consideration of the good faith and reasonableness of employment decisions made by the party, including to attend and complete an educational or vocational program likely to maintain or increase the party's earning potential'; and a party's current incarceration is addressed by cross-reference to § 8.01-195.10. Section 20-108.1(H) also lets the court order a party to submit to a vocational evaluation by a vocational expert when earning capacity or voluntary unemployment is genuinely in dispute.
If you do not earn much
There is a presumptive minimum monthly order set at 'the statutory minimum.' The escape hatch: 'If the gross income of the obligor is equal to or less than 150 percent of the federal poverty level… then the court, upon hearing evidence that there is no ability to pay the presumptive statutory minimum, may set an obligation below the presumptive statutory minimum provided doing so does not create or reduce a support obligation to an amount which seriously impairs the custodial parent's ability to maintain minimal adequate housing and provide other basic necessities for the child.' Full exemptions from the minimum apply to parents who lack assets to pay and who are institutionalized in a psychiatric facility, imprisoned for life with no chance of parole, medically verified as totally and permanently disabled with no potential to pay (including SSI recipients), or 'otherwise involuntarily unable to produce income.' The schedule's lowest row, for combined income of $0 to $350, is $68 for one child.
Childcare and health insurance
Both are added to the basic obligation and then shared in proportion to gross income. Child care: 'Any child-care costs incurred on behalf of the child or children due to employment of the custodial parent shall be added to the basic child support obligation. Child-care costs shall not exceed the amount required to provide quality care from a licensed source.' On request, the court factors in the actual tax savings from child-care deductions or credits, and may weigh 'the willingness and availability of the noncustodial parent to provide child care personally.' Health care: 'The costs for health care coverage… vision care coverage, and dental care coverage for the child or children who are the subject of the child support order that are being paid by a parent or that parent's spouse shall be added to the basic child support obligation,' computed per person by subtracting the cost of individual policy-holder coverage from the total and dividing the remainder by the number of remaining covered people. If the paying parent pays it, their share is reduced by that amount. Unreimbursed medical and dental expenses are handled separately under subsection D — they are NOT added to the guideline number; instead 'the parents pay in proportion to their gross incomes… any reasonable and necessary unreimbursed medical or dental expenses,' each
Private school, special needs, activities
Section 20-108.1(B) lists as deviation factors 'Any special needs of a child resulting from any physical, emotional, or medical condition,' 'Debts of either party arising during the marriage for the benefit of the child,' 'Direct payments ordered by the court for maintaining life insurance coverage…, education expenses, or other court-ordered direct payments for the benefit of the child,' the child's own independent financial resources, and the standard of living established during the marriage. Private school and extracurriculars are not separately scheduled — they come in through 'education expenses' and 'such other factors as are necessary to consider the equities for the parents and children.' In a case filed within six months of a birth, the parents also share pregnancy and delivery expenses in proportion to gross income.
When a judge can depart from the number
The guideline amount is presumed correct. 'In order to rebut the presumption, the court shall make written findings in the order, which findings may be incorporated by reference, that the application of such guidelines would be unjust or inappropriate in a particular case. The finding that rebuts the guidelines shall state the amount of support that would have been required under the guidelines, shall give a justification of why the order varies from the guidelines,' and must be grounded in the fifteen factors listed in § 20-108.1(B).
Two things worth planning around. First, the 90-day shared custody threshold is a real cliff: at 91 days of custody or visitation a whole different formula applies, one that inflates the base by 1.4 before splitting it — and the shared formula only helps you if it produces a lower number, because the statute makes you use the lesser of the two. Second, Virginia has an unusual and generous rule for parents digging out of arrears: money you earn from a new second job, self-employment or overtime taken on specifically to pay down a court-ordered arrearage is excluded from gross income, and when you stop that extra work after the arrears are cleared, the other parent cannot use that as a change in circumstances.
Later on
When it ends
Va. Code § 20-124.2: support continues for a child over 18 who is '(i) a full-time high school student, (ii) not self-supporting, and (iii) living in the home of the party seeking or receiving child support until such child reaches the age of 19 or graduates from high school, whichever first occurs.' Otherwise it ends at 18.
College and support after 18
Only in two narrow situations. For a disabled adult child, the court may order support for a child over 18 who is '(a) severely and permanently mentally or physically disabled, and such disability existed prior to the child reaching the age of 18 or the age of 19 if the child met the requirements of clauses (i), (ii), and (iii); (b) unable to live independently and support himself; and (c) residing in the home of the parent seeking or receiving child support.' Otherwise, only by agreement: 'the court may confirm a stipulation or agreement of the parties which extends a support obligation beyond when it would otherwise terminate as provided by law.' If you want college covered, put it in the agreement. The court also 'shall have no authority to decree support of children payable by the estate of a deceased party.'
Changing the amount later
Under Va. Code § 20-108 the court may, on petition of either parent, 'revise and alter such decree concerning the care, custody, and maintenance of the children and make a new decree concerning the same, as the circumstances of the parents and the benefit of the children may require' — a material change in circumstances standard, with no percentage trigger. Two things do NOT count as a material change: a party's financial responsibility for another natural or adopted child in their household, and the ending of secondary employment income that had been excluded because it was being used to pay off arrears. Virginia's Department of Social Services states that most agency-handled orders can be reviewed every three years.
How far back a change can reach
Two rules pointing in different directions. On a first order, § 20-108.1(B): 'Liability for support shall be determined retroactively for the period measured from the date that the proceeding was commenced by the filing of an action with any court provided the complainant exercised due diligence in the service of the respondent.' On a modification, § 20-108: 'No support order may be retroactively modified, but may be modified with respect to any period during which there is a pending petition for modification in any court, but only from the date that notice of such petition has been given to the responding party.'
If someone stops paying
Va. Code § 63.2-1937 allows suspension of a driver's, occupational, professional, business or recreational license 'Upon 30 days' notice to an obligor who (i) has failed to comply with a subpoena, summons or warrant relating to paternity or child support proceedings or (ii) is alleged to be delinquent in the payment of child support by a period of 90 days or more or for $5,000 or more.' Va. Code § 63.2-1952 requires the Commissioner to collect 'Interest at the judgment interest rate as established by § 6.2-302 on any arrearage' being enforced by the Department, except during an obligor's own minority; § 6.2-302 sets that judgment rate at 'an annual rate of six percent.'
What we could not confirm
- Virginia's statute refers repeatedly to a 'statutory minimum' monthly order but does not state the dollar figure in § 20-108.2, and we could not locate the definition on an official Virginia source. Ask the clerk of your juvenile and domestic relations district court or the Division of Child Support Enforcement (1-800-468-8894) what the current statutory minimum is. Also note that the DC-637 worksheet is a paper form you fill in yourself, not an automatic calculator — Virginia's own guidance calls it 'only an estimate.'
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 Virginia. Every figure is quoted from Virginia’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.