North Carolina Child Support Calculator (2026)

How North Carolina calculates child support

North Carolina uses the income-shares model under G.S. 50-13.4 and the Child Support Guidelines adopted by the Conference of Chief District Judges. The guidelines in force for 2026 are the ones effective January 1, 2023. A revised set was adopted in 2026, but it applies to actions heard on or after January 1, 2027, so it does not change this calculation.

Worksheet A is the primary-custody worksheet. It enters each parent’s monthly adjusted gross income, computes each parent’s percentage share of the combined income, reads the basic obligation from the schedule, adds the adjustments paid by each parent, and multiplies the total by each parent’s share. The paying parent’s own direct payments are credited at the end, and the result is the recommended order.

Worksheet A applies when the custodial parent has the children for more than two-thirds of the year, which the form puts at 243 nights or more. Shared physical custody uses Worksheet B, and split custody uses Worksheet C. This calculator reproduces Worksheet A only, and it does not add the adjustment lines.

The schedule interpolates between $50 steps

The Schedule of Basic Support Obligations runs from $1,300 to $40,000 of combined monthly adjusted gross income in $50 steps. Unlike states that round to the nearest step, North Carolina tells the court to interpolate when the combined income falls between two rows. That is why the schedule is a set of points on a curve rather than a set of brackets.

In practice, $3,020 of combined income sits 40% of the way from the $3,000 row to the $3,050 row, so the one-child obligation is 40% of the way from $566 to $575, or $569.60. The calculator applies the same linear interpolation to every row and every number of children.

Below $1,300 the first row applies. Above $40,000 of combined income the schedule stops: the court sets support to meet the child’s reasonable needs and may use the schedule as a minimum reference. The calculator uses the $40,000 row in that case, so a high-income estimate is a floor.

Income: gross, with two adjustments

North Carolina starts with monthly gross income. The worksheet’s line 2 is called “adjusted gross income”, but the adjustments are narrow: pre-existing child support orders for other children, and the parent’s financial responsibility for other children who live with them. No deduction is made for income tax, FICA, health insurance, or retirement contributions, because the schedule was built from net income and converted back to a gross basis.

Gross income is broad. It includes wages, self-employment and business income, rent, pensions, interest, capital gains, unemployment, workers’ compensation, disability, and alimony received from someone other than the other parent. It excludes means-tested public assistance and adoption assistance.

The usual disputes are about self-employment income, irregular bonuses, and imputed income. The court can average non-recurring income, add back business expenses that are not ordinary and necessary, and assign potential income when a parent acted in bad faith to suppress income. In 2026 the statute also says incarceration may not be treated as voluntary unemployment.

The shaded area and the self-support reserve

The 2023 guidelines include a self-support reserve of $1,133 a month, the 2022 federal poverty level for one person. For a paying parent with adjusted gross income below $1,150, the presumptive order is the $50 minimum. Above that, the schedule itself incorporates the reserve adjustment.

The schedule shades the cells where the reserve is doing the work: up to $1,750 for one child, $2,150 for two, $2,500 for three, $2,800 for four, $3,100 for five, and $3,450 for six. If the paying parent’s income falls inside that area, Worksheet A uses the obligation for that income alone instead of the combined-income calculation. The other parent’s income is ignored, and the add-on lines are not used.

This is a deliberate design. It prevents the order from jumping when a low-income parent gets a small raise, and it keeps the reserve intact. The cost is that two families with the same paying-parent income can see the same order even when the other parent earns very different amounts.

What the estimate leaves out

The schedule covers the basic obligation. Child care that is necessary for work, the children’s portion of a health insurance premium, and extraordinary expenses are added on lines 5a to 5c and split by income share. The basic obligation also assumes $250 per child per year for uninsured medical costs; anything predictable above that can be allocated separately.

Shared custody, split custody, other-children adjustments beyond line 2, and deviations for special needs or extraordinary circumstances are outside this estimate. Each of them can move the final order well away from the schedule figure.

A North Carolina example at $5,000 combined

Parent A earns $3,000 and Parent B earns $2,000 of monthly adjusted gross income (line 2), with two children. Combined income is $5,000, and the two-child row gives $1,349. Parent A’s 60% share is $809.40 a month, or about $809.

Inside the shaded area the calculation is different. With Parent A at $1,500 and Parent B at $2,000 and two children, $1,500 is below the $2,150 shaded limit, so the obligation is the schedule amount for $1,500 alone ($171), and Parent B’s income does not change it. At $3,020 of combined income with one child, interpolation gives $570.

When the official worksheet is the better choice

The AOC worksheets are the filing-ready version. Worksheet A handles primary custody, Worksheet B handles joint or shared physical custody, and Worksheet C handles split custody. They include the adjustment lines and the credits that this estimate leaves out.

A North Carolina family law attorney is the right next step when the parents disagree about income or custody. The schedule is the starting point; the court’s order controls.

Frequently asked questions