New York child support calculator

Gross income, with two deductions that matter

New York is unusual in refusing to subtract income tax. Family Court Act § 413(1)(b)(5) starts from the gross income that should have been reported on the parent’s latest federal return, adds non-taxable sources such as workers’ compensation, disability and Social Security benefits, and then allows a short list of deductions. The two that most paychecks use are FICA actually paid and New York City or Yonkers income tax actually paid. Federal and New York State income tax stay in. So does most of what a pay stub withholds. Maintenance paid to the other parent comes off too, which is why New York courts compute spousal maintenance first and child support second. A Manhattan employee and a Buffalo employee with the same salary can therefore have different CSSA incomes, purely because of the city tax.

A worked CSSA example

Take a noncustodial parent earning $60,000 and a custodial parent earning $30,000, both after the allowed deductions, with two children. Combined parental income is $90,000; 25% of it gives a combined obligation of $22,500 a year. The noncustodial parent has 66.7% of the income and owes that share: $15,000 a year, or $1,250 a month. The custodial parent’s share is never paid out; it is presumed spent directly on the children. The Child Support Standards Chart published by OTDA lists the same figures in $100 income steps computed at the bottom of each step, so a calculation with the exact percentages can differ from the chart by a few dollars.

The $193,000 combined income cap

Social Services Law § 111-i adjusts the cap every two years on March 1 by the change in the consumer price index, rounded to the nearest thousand dollars, starting from $141,000. The March 1, 2026 revision raised it from $183,000 to $193,000, which by itself adds $1,700 a year to the combined obligation for one child in families above the old ceiling. On combined income beyond the cap, the court may apply the percentages, apply them partly, or not at all, after weighing the factors of § 413(1)(f) and explaining its choice. For parents earning $180,000 and $60,000 with one child, the capped obligation of the higher earner is $2,051 a month; applying the percentage to all $240,000 would make it $2,550. That gap is often what a New York support hearing is actually about.

Poverty guideline and self-support reserve

Two floors protect a low-earning noncustodial parent (§ 413(1)(d)). If paying the percentage would leave income below the $15,960 federal poverty guideline for one person, the basic obligation becomes $25 a month. If it would leave income between that line and the self-support reserve, set at 135% of the poverty guideline ($21,546 for 2026), the obligation is the greater of $50 a month or the income above the reserve. A parent earning $24,000 with two children, and a custodial parent with no income, would owe $205 a month instead of the full percentage; a parent earning $18,000 with one child owes $25.

Add-ons and the age of 21

Reasonable child care costs incurred so the custodial parent can work, look for work or study are prorated by income share (§ 413(1)(c)(4)), as are health insurance premiums and unreimbursed medical costs (§ 413(1)(c)(5)). In the example above the noncustodial parent would carry 66.7% of each bill. College and private school costs are discretionary (§ 413(1)(c)(7)). The CSSA has no formula for parenting time: an equal schedule still leaves the higher earner as noncustodial parent for support purposes in most cases, with the § 413(1)(f) factors as the only route to a lower figure. Support continues until the child turns 21 unless the child becomes emancipated earlier. The worksheet printed with the OTDA chart walks through the same steps, line by line, and is the form most New York courts expect to see.