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Updated for 2026 guidelines

The Colorado Child Support Cap: $40,000 a Month

Colorado’s rewritten schedule reaches $40,000 a month in combined adjusted gross income. Above that line, the statute calls the top-row amount a floor a court cannot go below, not a ceiling it cannot cross.

Reviewed by SupportDecode Editorial Team Page content reviewed Sources Methodology Update log

Colorado cap facts

Guideline model
Income shares on combined adjusted gross incomesource
Statute
C.R.S. Sec. 14-10-115(7)source
Schedule top row
$40,000 a month, effective March 1, 2026source
Above the top row
Presumptive amount must not be less than the $40,000-row figure (a floor, not a ceiling)source
Prior schedule top
$30,000 a month, in effect 2020 through February 2026source
Full state calculator
Colorado child support calculatorsource

A floor, not a ceiling

Colorado runs an income shares model on combined monthly adjusted gross income, and since HB25-1159 took effect March 1, 2026, it runs on one rewritten worksheet instead of the old two-worksheet system.

That bill also extended the schedule from $30,000 to $40,000 a month combined income, and re-based every row of it. At $40,000 combined, the 2-child schedule amount is $4,992; other family sizes have their own top-row figures.

Here is the mechanic worth knowing: Sec. 14-10-115(7)(a)(VII) says the presumptive basic obligation above $40,000 "must not be less than" the amount at the $40,000 row. That is a floor, the opposite framing from a cap. A court has full discretion to order more once income passes $40,000; what it cannot do is order less than the top-row amount.

That is different from Washington’s or Texas’s flat number at the ceiling and different again from Maryland’s total silence above its schedule. Colorado is explicit: the number at $40,000 is the least a family in that income bracket can be ordered to pay, and courts routinely see it as a starting point rather than a final answer for genuinely high earners.

At the schedule top: combined income of $40,000, 2 children

  1. Say the paying parent earns $25,000 a month and the other parent earns $15,000, for combined income of exactly $40,000, with 2 children who spend all their overnights with the other parent.
  2. At the $40,000 row, the 2-child schedule amount is $4,992.
  3. Each parent’s share of the basic obligation runs through the per-overnight parenting time credit table, since Colorado now applies that table starting at the first overnight. With the paying parent holding none of the overnights here, the offset math lands the presumptive support at $3,120.00 a month.
  4. That is the schedule’s own answer right at the top row, before any above-cap rule comes into play.

The steps above follow the calculation method described on our methodology page.

Above the schedule: combined income of $45,000, same 2 children

  1. Now say the paying parent’s income rises to $30,000 a month and the other parent still earns $15,000, for combined income of $45,000, past the $40,000 schedule top, still 2 children with the same custody split.
  2. The schedule itself does not have a $45,000 row, so Sec. 14-10-115(7)(a)(VII) applies: the presumptive basic obligation must not be less than the $40,000-row amount, still $4,992 for 2 children.
  3. Running the same parenting time and income-share math on the floored $4,992 obligation, with the paying parent’s larger real share of the $45,000 combined income, produces a presumptive support of $3,328.00 a month, higher than the at-cap example.
  4. The court has discretion to order more than $3,328.00; Colorado law never says $4,992 is the most a family at this income earns. What the statute guarantees is that no order below the top-row figure is proper once combined income clears $40,000.

The steps above follow the calculation method described on our methodology page.

Colorado cap history

  1. HB19-1215 schedule took effect with a $30,000 a month combined income top row.source
  2. HB25-1159 extended the schedule to $40,000 a month, repealed the 92-overnight shared-care threshold, and replaced the old worksheets with one per-overnight parenting time table.source

Colorado cap FAQs

What is the Colorado child support schedule top in 2026?

The C.R.S. Sec. 14-10-115(7) schedule runs to $40,000 a month in combined adjusted gross income, effective March 1, 2026 under HB25-1159. That is up from $30,000 under the prior schedule, which applied from July 2020 through February 2026.

Is $40,000 a cap on Colorado child support?

Not in the usual sense. Sec. 14-10-115(7)(a)(VII) makes the $40,000-row amount a floor: the presumptive obligation above that income level must not be less than the top-row figure. A court can order more; it just cannot order less than that minimum once combined income clears $40,000.

How is Colorado’s above-schedule rule different from Washington’s or Texas’s?

Texas and Washington both treat their ceilings as effectively flat caps: the guideline number does not grow past the top of the table without a separate discretionary finding. Colorado is explicit that its top-row figure is a floor, not a stopping point, so above $40,000 combined income the presumptive amount is guaranteed to be at least that much, with room for a court to go higher.

Does the parenting time credit still apply above $40,000 combined income?

Yes. Colorado’s per-overnight parenting time credit table applies at every income level under the current law, including above the $40,000 schedule top. It changes how the floored basic obligation gets divided between the parents, which is why two households with the same combined income can see different support numbers above the cap.

When did Colorado’s current cap rules take effect?

HB25-1159 took effect March 1, 2026, extending the schedule to $40,000, repealing the old 92-overnight shared-care threshold, and replacing the two-worksheet system with one worksheet built around a per-overnight parenting time table. Orders entered or last modified before that date stay on the prior formula until modified.

Does the $40,000 floor change with the number of children?

Yes. The $40,000 combined-income trigger point is the same for every family size, but the schedule amount at that row rises with more children, so the floor a court cannot go below is larger for a bigger family.

How to use the Colorado cap number

This page explains one mechanic: why Colorado’s $40,000 schedule top functions as a floor a court cannot go under, not a ceiling it cannot cross. For a full estimate, including the per-overnight parenting time credit and the low-income taper, use the Colorado child support calculator linked below.

Because Colorado applies parenting time credit starting at the first overnight, the dollar amount at and above $40,000 depends heavily on the custody split, not just the two incomes. The worked examples above hold the custody split constant so the cap mechanic is the only thing that changes.

This tool computes the statutory floor above $40,000 combined income. It does not predict how much higher a specific court might go, since that is a case-by-case discretionary call the statute deliberately leaves open.

What this estimate includes

  • The exact statutory mechanic: the top-row amount is a floor, not a maximum, above $40,000 combined income
  • A worked example at the schedule top and a second one above it, with the custody split held constant
  • The HB25-1159 rewrite that took effect March 1, 2026, including the schedule extension from $30,000

What it leaves out

  • The full per-overnight parenting time credit table and the low-income taper (use the Colorado calculator)
  • Any prediction of how much a court might order above the statutory floor
  • Orders entered or last modified before March 1, 2026, which stay on the repealed 92-overnight worksheet until modified

Official sources

Official sources last verified: .

Reviewed by SupportDecode Editorial Team Page content reviewed Sources Methodology Update log

Changelog: page first published with the $40,000 a month in combined adjusted gross income cap. Material changes are dated in the update log.