How Child Support Is Calculated in Georgia: The Income Shares Model Explained

Parents facing a custody case almost always ask the same question early: how much will child support be? Georgia answers with a formula called the income shares model. The idea is simple — a child should receive the same proportion of parental income they would have received if the parents lived together. The court combines both parents' gross monthly incomes, looks up the basic child support obligation for that combined income on Georgia's official schedule, and then divides that obligation between the parents in proportion to what each one earns.

Here's a simplified example: if one parent earns $4,000 a month and the other earns $2,000, their combined income is $6,000 — meaning one parent is responsible for roughly two-thirds of the support obligation and the other for one-third. The parent without primary physical custody typically pays their share to the custodial parent, who is presumed to spend their share directly on the child. Gross income is defined broadly: salary, commissions, bonuses, self-employment income, rental income, and more all count — and a parent who is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed can have income imputed to them based on earning capacity.

The base formula is only the starting point. Georgia adds adjustments for health insurance premiums and work-related childcare costs, and judges may apply deviations up or down for things like extraordinary medical or educational expenses, travel costs for visitation, and parenting time — for example, when the noncustodial parent has the child a substantial portion of the time. This is where cases are won and lost: two families with identical incomes can end up with very different support orders depending on how these adjustments and deviations are argued.

Georgia provides an online child support calculator, but plugging in numbers is not the same as knowing which numbers to plug in — or which deviations to fight for. 

At Chisolm Trimble & Associates, LLC, we help parents in Douglasville and Metro Atlanta ensure support orders are accurate and fair, whether you'll be paying or receiving. Call 770-741-1570 or visit www.chisolmtrimblelaw.com to schedule a consultation.