Minnesota Child Support Calculator 2026

Gross, packaged as PICS. Minn. Stat. 518A.29 counts gross income from nearly all periodic sources, before taxes and before pre-tax deductions, then 518A.33 subtracts an amount for nonjoint children living in the home. Child support received is excluded, and spousal maintenance a parent pays under court order is deducted. That makes Minnesota simpler at the income step than net-income states, where the deduction list does the heavy lifting.

Through a single continuous formula, not brackets. Since August 1, 2018, each parent share of the basic obligation is weighted by the cube of the other parent annual overnights, and the difference, divided by the sum of the cubes, is the order. More overnights for the paying parent means a smoothly smaller number. At exactly equal overnights the formula collapses to half the difference between the two shares, so equal time with unequal incomes still produces support.

No. The 12 percent adjustment for 10 to 45 percent parenting time, and the rule presuming equal time between 45.1 and 50 percent, were both repealed effective August 1, 2018. The current 518A.36 text contains neither number. Pages that still describe those bands are quoting law that is years out of date, which matters: under the old rule crossing 45.1 percent could wipe out an order, and under the current formula it just shifts it a little.

The basic support obligation is capped at the amount shown for combined PICS of $20,000 (518A.35 subd. 3). A court may set support higher only after finding that a child has a disability or other substantial, demonstrated need that the capped amount does not meet. This tool applies the cap and labels it.

Under 518A.42, the obligor income available for support is monthly PICS minus 120 percent of the federal poverty guidelines for one person, which is $1,596 a month using the 2026 figure. If the guideline total exceeds that available income, the order is reduced in a fixed sequence: medical support goes first, then child care support, then basic support, until the order fits. If the available income is at or below the minimum, the obligor pays minimum basic support of $50 to $100 by number of children.

As separate components stacked on basic support. Work-related child care cost is divided in proportion to PICS after a tax-credit adjustment (518A.40). The cost of the children health coverage is divided the same way (518A.41), and when the parent paying support is the one carrying the coverage, the other parent share is credited against the payment instead of added to it. Uninsured medical expenses are also split by PICS share as they arise.

Use both. The DHS guidelines calculator at childsupportcalculator.dhs.state.mn.us produces the worksheet courts expect, and for filing that is the tool. What it does not do is explain itself. This page walks the same statutes line by line, shows every intermediate figure, links each rule to the official text, and tells you which numbers we could not verify. Understand the number here, produce it there.

Not silently. The guideline amount is a rebuttable presumption, and a court can approve a deviation, including a reserved or zero order, only with written findings under 518A.43 explaining why it serves the child. Where the county provides services because of public assistance, the state has its own interest in the order and private side agreements do not bind it.

January 1, 2023, from the 2021 special session law that followed the DHS 2022 guidelines review. Existing orders did not change automatically; the new table applies when an order is set or modified after that date. A modification still needs the usual showing of substantially changed circumstances under 518A.39.