New Jersey Child Support Calculator (2026)

How New Jersey calculates child support

New Jersey uses the income-shares model under Rule 5:6A and Appendix IX of the Court Rules. The court adds both parents’ weekly net incomes, reads a basic award from the Appendix IX-F schedule for that combined income and the number of children, and assigns each parent a share in proportion to income. The parent who is not the parent of primary residence pays that share to the other parent.

The worksheet is the “sole parenting” worksheet in Appendix IX-B. It starts with gross income, subtracts the permitted deductions, converts everything to a weekly figure, and then walks through the schedule, the parents’ shares, and the add-ons. The shared-parenting and split-parenting worksheets are separate, and this calculator does not reproduce them.

The schedule itself took effect September 1, 2025. The self-support reserve and the tax tables were updated by the annual amendments that took effect June 1, 2026, which is why the current reserve is $460 a week rather than the figure in older articles.

Net income: from gross to weekly

The worksheet separates taxable income from non-taxable income before withholding is calculated. Deductions are limited. Appendix IX-B allows withholding taxes (federal, state, and local, computed with the Appendix IX-H tables), mandatory retirement contributions, mandatory union dues, tax-deductible alimony paid, and court-ordered child support for other dependents. Voluntary retirement contributions, deferred compensation, and most personal expenses are not deductible.

Non-taxable income still counts. Disability benefits, workers’ compensation, veterans’ benefits, and some Social Security benefits can be part of net income even though they are not taxed. Government benefits paid for the child are treated separately: means-tested benefits are excluded, while derivative benefits based on a parent’s work history count as that parent’s income and can also produce a credit on the worksheet.

The court can impute income when a parent is voluntarily underemployed or when the income evidence is incomplete. The imputation factors are long and case-specific, so a calculator that takes one weekly number per parent cannot reproduce them.

The $460 self-support reserve

The self-support reserve is $460 a week, which is 150% of the federal poverty guideline for one person. It is a test, not a deduction. The worksheet calculates the paying parent’s net income minus that parent’s support obligation, and the other parent’s net income minus that parent’s share of the same obligation.

If the paying parent would fall below $460 and the other parent would stay above $460, the order is reduced to the paying parent’s net income minus $460. If the other parent would also fall below the reserve, there is no adjustment and the schedule amount stands. This is why a low-income parent with a much higher-earning co-parent can see the order drop sharply, and why the result stops at zero instead of turning negative.

Schedule limits and rounding

Appendix IX-F runs from $180 to $3,600 of combined weekly net income in $10 steps. Between steps, the rule rounds to the next higher income if the remainder is $5.00 or more and to the lower step if it is less, so $446 uses the $450 row. The calculator applies that rule before the lookup.

Below $180 a week, the court sets support from the paying parent’s income and living expenses and the child’s needs, within a range that starts at $5 a week and ends at the $180 amount. Above $3,600 a week, the $3,600 award is the minimum and the court adds a discretionary amount. The schedule does not extrapolate, so this calculator uses the $180 and $3,600 rows as floors.

Shared parenting at 28% and the add-ons

Once the parent of alternate residence has at least 28% of the overnights (roughly two nights a week), the court may use the shared-parenting worksheet instead of the sole-parenting one. The threshold depends on a parenting plan, separate sleeping space for the child, and the actual overnight count; the adjustment is discretionary, not automatic. This calculator shows the sole-parenting amount and does not apply it.

Add-ons are lines 9 to 12 of the worksheet: net work-related childcare, the marginal cost of the children’s health insurance, predictable unreimbursed health costs above $250 per child per year, and court-approved extraordinary expenses. Each is added to the basic award and then split by income share, so the final order can be well above the schedule figure. None of them are included here.

A New Jersey example at $2,500 a week

Parent A earns $1,500 and Parent B earns $1,000 of weekly net income, with one child. Combined income is $2,500, which reads $481 a week from the schedule. Parent A’s 60% share is $288.60 a week, or about $1,251 a month.

The reserve does not apply there: $1,500 minus $288.60 leaves $1,211.40, well above $460. With Parent A at $500 and Parent B at $1,200 a week and two children, the $1,700 row gives $446, and Parent A’s 29.4% share would be $131.18. The reserve does apply: $500 minus $131.18 is below $460, and Parent B stays well above it. The order drops to $40 a week, about $173 a month.

When the official worksheet is the better choice

New Jersey’s QuickCalc and the Appendix IX-B worksheet handle the full calculation: withholding tables, other dependents, add-ons, the reserve, and the shared-parenting alternative. Use them if the parents share custody, if either parent has children in another family, or if the income figure needs imputing.

A New Jersey family law attorney is the right next step when the parents disagree about income or overnights. The worksheet is the starting point; the court’s order controls.

Frequently asked questions