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If you and your co-parent are higher-income earners navigating divorce or separation, you’ve probably discovered something surprising: New Jersey’s child support guidelines don’t go up forever. There’s a maximum combined income level where the economic table stops, and beyond that point, the calculation becomes less straightforward.
This realization often creates anxiety. You might wonder whether you’ll pay an excessive amount or whether your children will receive adequate support. You might have heard stories about contentious battles over lifestyle expectations.
While above-guidelines cases involve greater complexity than straightforward calculations, New Jersey has established principles for handling them. Understanding the framework can help you approach these discussions more productively.
Understanding the Guidelines Maximum
New Jersey’s Child Support Guidelines use an economic table based on research about how families at different income levels allocate resources toward child-rearing. This research provides solid data on spending patterns across a wide range of income levels. Still, the data becomes less reliable at very high income levels simply because there are fewer families in that range to study.
Currently, the New Jersey guidelines cap combined net income at a certain threshold. When your combined income exceeds this amount, you’ve moved into what’s called “above-guidelines” territory.
This doesn’t mean the guidelines are irrelevant to your situation. The guideline calculation for the maximum amount serves as a floor, a starting point for determining appropriate support. But the final amount requires additional analysis beyond simply plugging numbers into the formula.
Why the Guidelines Have a Cap
From a financial analysis perspective, the cap makes sense. Child-rearing costs don’t increase proportionally with income forever. A family earning $500,000 annually doesn’t typically spend five times as much on basic child needs as a family earning $100,000.
At higher income levels, additional income often goes toward wealth accumulation or luxury expenditures rather than child-rearing necessities. The challenge becomes distinguishing between maintaining an appropriate standard of living for children and simply extrapolating costs upward indefinitely.
The guidelines cap recognizes that beyond a certain point, the relationship between income and child-rearing costs requires individualized analysis rather than a one-size-fits-all formula.
Approaches for Above-Guidelines Calculations
When your combined income exceeds the guidelines maximum, New Jersey recognizes several approaches for determining appropriate child support.
One standard method calculates the guideline amount at the maximum income level and adds a percentage of income above that level. This creates a mathematical extension that recognizes higher income should result in higher support, but at a decreasing rate.
Another approach involves examining the lifestyle your children enjoyed during the marriage and calculating the cost to maintain it. This requires a detailed financial analysis of historical spending patterns on child-related expenses.
The key principle is that children should not be economic victims of divorce. They should maintain a lifestyle reasonably comparable to what they would have experienced in an intact household, given the parents’ income and resources.
The Role of Discretion and Judgment
Above-guidelines cases inevitably involve more discretion than straightforward calculations. This discretion is actually an opportunity for thoughtful, individualized decision-making. In mediation, you and your co-parent can consider factors that matter specifically to your children. Maybe your family has always prioritized educational enrichment, international travel, or serious athletic pursuits requiring significant investment.
The flexibility in the above guidelines cases allows you to build a support arrangement that reflects your family’s values and priorities rather than having standardized assumptions imposed on your situation.
Financial Analysis for Higher-Income Families
Determining appropriate support above the guidelines requires sophisticated financial analysis. This means gathering comprehensive documentation of the family’s historical spending, including credit card, bank, and receipts, to understand actual expenditure patterns. You need to identify which expenses are truly child-related and which are adult expenses.
Housing costs need an appropriate allocation. Educational expenses are usually counted in full, including tuition, enrichment activities, tutoring, and supplies. For higher-income families, educational investment often represents a significant child-rearing expenditure.
Healthcare costs beyond insurance, transportation related to children’s activities, and vacation expenses all require thoughtful consideration. The analysis distinguishes between costs directly related to children and those related to adult preferences.
Lifestyle Maintenance Considerations
One delicate issue in the above guidelines cases involves lifestyle expectations. Children who have grown up in high-income households develop certain expectations and have experienced particular standards of living.
This doesn’t mean children are entitled to unlimited luxury. But if your children have attended private school, participated in competitive sports requiring travel, or grown up with specific amenities, these factors legitimately inform what “appropriate support” means for your family.
In mediation, I help parents focus on the children’s best interests. The question isn’t whether children technically “need” various things, but what maintaining reasonable continuity in their lives looks like given the family’s established circumstances.
Documentation and Evidence
Above-guidelines cases require extensive documentation. You’ll need comprehensive financial records showing income sources, including multiple years of tax returns, particularly if income varies. Pay stubs, bonus statements, and investment income documentation all matter.
You’ll also need evidence of actual spending on child-related expenses: tuition payments, activity fees, healthcare costs, clothing expenses, and other child-related spending. The more detailed and organized your documentation, the more productive your negotiations can be.
For self-employed parents or those with complex compensation, detailed financial statements become essential for presenting a clear picture of actual available income.
Why High-Income Cases Become Nightmares in Litigation
Here’s what you need to understand: above-guidelines cases in litigation become extraordinarily expensive and contentious. When you’re in court, each parent typically hires not just attorneys, but financial experts to argue competing visions of appropriate support.
In litigation, you’ll pay tens of thousands in fees for attorneys and experts to fight over every detail of your lifestyle spending. Discovery becomes invasive as opposing counsel demands years of credit card statements, receipts, and documentation of every expenditure. They’ll scrutinize your vacations, your children’s activities, your housing choices—all in an adversarial setting designed to create winners and losers.
The process typically drags on for a year or more as experts prepare reports, attorneys file motions, and court dates get scheduled and rescheduled. You’ll sit through depositions where opposing counsel questions your spending decisions and parenting choices. The costs mount into six figures while the conflict intensifies.
Worst of all, you ultimately surrender the decision to a judge who doesn’t know your family, doesn’t understand the nuances of your children’s needs or your family’s values, and who has limited time to wade through mountains of financial documentation. That judge will impose a solution based on incomplete information presented in an adversarial context.
The litigation process itself damages the co-parenting relationship you’ll need for years to come. When you’ve spent months fighting over every aspect of lifestyle spending in a courtroom, maintaining cooperative communication about your children becomes exponentially more complicated.
Mediation: The Superior Path for High-Income Families
Mediation offers high-income families something dramatically different: the opportunity to craft solutions that actually make sense for your specific circumstances while maintaining control over the outcome.
In mediation, you and your co-parent work together with a skilled mediator to examine your historical spending patterns, discuss what maintaining your children’s lifestyle actually requires, and reach a support agreement that feels fair to both of you. You maintain the privacy of your financial details rather than have them paraded through public court proceedings.
The collaborative nature of mediation allows you to explore creative solutions that would never emerge in litigation. Maybe you agree to handle certain expenses directly rather than through support payments. Maybe you build in mechanisms to share extraordinary costs. Maybe you create flexible arrangements that adjust as your children’s needs evolve.
You save substantial sums on professional fees by working cooperatively rather than adversarially. More importantly, you preserve the relationship you’ll need to co-parent effectively through your children’s school years, college decisions, and beyond.
Negotiating Above-Guidelines Support Cooperatively
The flexibility in the above guidelines cases makes them particularly well-suited to mediation. You and your co-parent can work together to craft an arrangement that makes sense for your family.
Transparency about finances and spending patterns is essential. When both parents can see the complete financial picture and understand historical spending, you can have more grounded conversations.
It’s helpful to break down the analysis into components: housing, education, healthcare, activities, transportation, and discretionary expenses. Discussing specific spending categories makes reaching an agreement easier.
Consider building in mechanisms to address changing circumstances, such as provisions for actual educational expenses or periodic recalculations as children’s needs evolve.
Moving Forward with Expert Financial Guidance
Being in above-guidelines territory doesn’t have to mean contentious litigation or arbitrary decision-making. With proper financial analysis, comprehensive documentation, and a collaborative mindset, you and your co-parent can reach agreements that serve your children well.
But here’s the reality: this level of financial sophistication requires real expertise. Analyzing complex spending patterns, determining appropriate allocations of housing costs, evaluating lifestyle maintenance needs, understanding how parenting time affects child support calculations, and structuring agreements that work for high-income families aren’t tasks most people can navigate alone.
This is exactly where having a divorce mediator with advanced financial training becomes crucial. With an MBA in finance and extensive experience working with higher-income families, I can help you cut through the financial complexity that makes these cases challenging. We can analyze your spending patterns together, determine reasonable allocation methods, and help both parents understand the complete financial picture.
When your earnings involve sophisticated compensation structures—bonuses, stock options, RSUs, equity shares—or when you own businesses or have significant investment income, you need someone who can look at the complete financial landscape with a trained eye. I can help you understand what the numbers actually mean for your family’s future and guide you toward agreements that protect what you’ve built.
The goal should be reaching an agreement that both parents can live with, adequately supports your children, and reflects your family’s actual circumstances and values. In mediation, we can have thoughtful conversations about your priorities, explore different approaches, and craft solutions that preserve your children’s lifestyle while being fair to both parents.
You don’t need to surrender these critical decisions to strangers in a courtroom or spend six figures fighting over them. High-income divorce cases deserve the sophistication that mediation with financial expertise provides—helping you reach agreements on your own terms while preserving the cooperative relationship that will serve your family well for years to come.
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FAQs About New Jersey Child Support
[/fusion_title][fusion_accordion type=”toggles” inactive_icon=”” active_icon=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” boxed_mode=”yes” border_size=”2″ border_color=”#d8e8f2″ hue=”” saturation=”” lightness=”” alpha=”” hover_color=”#f4f3ef” background_color=”” divider_line=”” divider_hover_color=”” divider_color=”” padding_top=”10px” padding_right=”5px” padding_bottom=”10px” padding_left=”5px” title_tag=”h4″ fusion_font_family_title_font=”Poppins” fusion_font_variant_title_font=”600″ title_font_size=”18px” title_line_height=”” title_letter_spacing=”” title_text_transform=”” title_color=”var(–awb-color6)” icon_size=”25px” icon_color=”#d8e8f2″ icon_boxed_mode=”no” icon_box_color=”#d8e8f2″ icon_alignment=”right” fusion_font_family_content_font=”” fusion_font_variant_content_font=”” content_font_size=”16px” content_line_height=”” content_letter_spacing=”” content_text_transform=”” content_color=”var(–awb-color6)” toggle_hover_accent_color=”var(–awb-color6)” toggle_active_accent_color=”var(–awb-color6)” render_logics=”” parent_dynamic_content=””][fusion_toggle title=”How is child support calculated in New Jersey?” open=”no” awb-switch-editor-focus=”” class=”” id=”” fusion_font_family_title_font=”” fusion_font_variant_title_font=”” title_font_size=”” title_line_height=”” title_letter_spacing=”” title_text_transform=”” title_color=”var(–awb-color8)” hue=”” saturation=”” lightness=”” alpha=”” fusion_font_family_content_font=”” fusion_font_variant_content_font=”” content_font_size=”” content_line_height=”” content_letter_spacing=”” content_text_transform=”” content_color=”var(–awb-color8)”]
New Jersey uses the income shares model under Court Rule 5:6A to calculate child support, with the guidelines spanning over 100 pages of detailed charts and instructions. The calculation begins by determining each parent’s gross income from all sources, then converting that to net income using either standardized tax withholding tables (Appendix IX-H) or individualized calculations based on actual tax obligations. New Jersey’s approach differs from some states in that the tax calculation method (IX-H) assumes standard withholding allowances to provide general estimates, though actual support orders account for specific tax situations.
Once each parent’s net income is established, these amounts are combined to determine the total household income available for the children. The state then consults the Schedule of Basic Child Support Obligations (Appendix IX-F, most recently updated September 2025) which provides award amounts based on combined net income and number of children. This schedule reflects Dr. David Macpherson’s 2024 analysis of consumer expenditure data, adjusted specifically for New Jersey’s population and cost of living. The basic support obligation is then divided proportionally based on each parent’s percentage of the combined income. The parent with less overnight time (the noncustodial parent or Parent of Alternate Residence) typically pays their share to the Parent of Primary Residence.
[/fusion_toggle][fusion_toggle title=”What is the self-support reserve in New Jersey child support?” open=”no” awb-switch-editor-focus=”” class=”” id=”” fusion_font_family_title_font=”” fusion_font_variant_title_font=”” title_font_size=”” title_line_height=”” title_letter_spacing=”” title_text_transform=”” title_color=”var(–awb-color8)” hue=”” saturation=”” lightness=”” alpha=”” fusion_font_family_content_font=”” fusion_font_variant_content_font=”” content_font_size=”” content_line_height=”” content_letter_spacing=”” content_text_transform=”” content_color=”var(–awb-color8)”]
New Jersey’s self-support reserve is a critical protection for low-income parents, set at 150% of the U.S. poverty guideline for one person. As of January 1, 2025, this amount is $451 per week in net income. The self-support reserve ensures that child support obligations don’t reduce a parent’s income below minimum subsistence level—essentially, courts cannot order support that leaves the paying parent unable to meet their own basic survival needs like food, shelter, and utilities.
When an obligor’s net income minus their share of child support would fall below $451 per week, courts must carefully review the parent’s actual income and living expenses to determine the maximum support amount that can reasonably be ordered while still allowing basic self-support. This might result in support orders below what the guidelines would otherwise require. The philosophy behind the self-support reserve recognizes that impoverishing the paying parent ultimately harms everyone: it eliminates work incentives, makes compliance impossible, and can lead to a cycle of mounting arrears that never get paid.
[/fusion_toggle][fusion_toggle title=”How does shared parenting affect New Jersey child support calculations?” open=”no” awb-switch-editor-focus=”” class=”” id=”” fusion_font_family_title_font=”” fusion_font_variant_title_font=”” title_font_size=”” title_line_height=”” title_letter_spacing=”” title_text_transform=”” title_color=”var(–awb-color8)” hue=”” saturation=”” lightness=”” alpha=”” fusion_font_family_content_font=”” fusion_font_variant_content_font=”” content_font_size=”” content_line_height=”” content_letter_spacing=”” content_text_transform=”” content_color=”var(–awb-color8)”]
New Jersey distinguishes between sole parenting and shared parenting based on the number of overnights the child spends with each parent. Shared parenting exists when the child spends 104 or more overnights per year (28% of nights or more) with the Parent of Alternate Residence. When this threshold is met, New Jersey uses a different worksheet and calculation method (Appendix IX-C) that recognizes both parents incur significant direct costs for the children.
In shared parenting situations, courts account for the fact that both households need appropriate space for the children, both parents purchase food and clothing, and both bear day-to-day expenses. The shared parenting worksheet adjusts the support calculation to reflect these duplicate costs. Generally, shared parenting arrangements result in lower support payments than sole parenting arrangements when incomes are similar, because the court recognizes the Parent of Alternate Residence is spending substantial sums directly on the children during their parenting time. However, even in true 50/50 custody arrangements, if one parent earns significantly more than the other, that higher-earning parent will typically still pay support to ensure the children’s standard of living is reasonably consistent in both homes.
[/fusion_toggle][fusion_toggle title=”At what age does child support end in New Jersey?” open=”no” awb-switch-editor-focus=”” class=”” id=”” fusion_font_family_title_font=”” fusion_font_variant_title_font=”” title_font_size=”” title_line_height=”” title_letter_spacing=”” title_text_transform=”” title_color=”var(–awb-color8)” hue=”” saturation=”” lightness=”” alpha=”” fusion_font_family_content_font=”” fusion_font_variant_content_font=”” content_font_size=”” content_line_height=”” content_letter_spacing=”” content_text_transform=”” content_color=”var(–awb-color8)”]
In New Jersey, child support typically continues until the child reaches age 19 or graduates from high school, whichever occurs later. This means if a child graduates high school at 17, support generally continues until age 19, and if a child is still in high school at 19, support continues until graduation. This approach ensures children complete their secondary education regardless of whether they graduate early or need additional time.
However, New Jersey’s approach to support for young adults attending college or other post-secondary education is more nuanced than simple age cutoffs. While basic child support technically ends at 19 or graduation, New Jersey courts frequently order parents to contribute to college expenses under a separate analysis. Support can also extend indefinitely for children with mental or physical disabilities that prevent them from becoming self-supporting. It’s important to note that child support doesn’t automatically terminate when these milestones are reached—parents must take affirmative steps to end the obligation, either by agreement filed with the court or through a modification proceeding.
[/fusion_toggle][fusion_toggle title=”What income counts for New Jersey child support calculations?” open=”no” awb-switch-editor-focus=”” class=”” id=”” fusion_font_family_title_font=”” fusion_font_variant_title_font=”” title_font_size=”” title_line_height=”” title_letter_spacing=”” title_text_transform=”” title_color=”var(–awb-color8)” hue=”” saturation=”” lightness=”” alpha=”” fusion_font_family_content_font=”” fusion_font_variant_content_font=”” content_font_size=”” content_line_height=”” content_letter_spacing=”” content_text_transform=”” content_color=”var(–awb-color8)”]
New Jersey takes an expansive view of income under Court Rule 5:6A, including virtually every form of compensation and financial resource. The basic categories include wages, salaries, commissions, bonuses, overtime pay, and tips from employment. Self-employment income and business profits count, calculated after deducting ordinary and reasonable business expenses actually incurred. Investment income such as dividends, interest, capital gains, and rental property income all factor into the calculation.
Retirement and government benefits are included: Social Security retirement or disability benefits, veterans benefits, Railroad Retirement Board payments, unemployment compensation, workers’ compensation, disability insurance payments, and distributions from pension plans, 401(k)s, IRAs, Keoghs, and other retirement accounts. Alimony and separate maintenance received from current or past relationships counts as income to the recipient. What doesn’t count as income? Means-tested government benefits like Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, Supplemental Security Income, food stamps, and similar poverty-based assistance are excluded. New Jersey courts can impute income when a parent is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed—assigning an earning capacity based on work history, education, training, and available job market.
[/fusion_toggle][fusion_toggle title=”How are childcare and health insurance costs handled in New Jersey child support?” open=”no” awb-switch-editor-focus=”” class=”” id=”” fusion_font_family_title_font=”” fusion_font_variant_title_font=”” title_font_size=”” title_line_height=”” title_letter_spacing=”” title_text_transform=”” title_color=”var(–awb-color8)” hue=”” saturation=”” lightness=”” alpha=”” fusion_font_family_content_font=”” fusion_font_variant_content_font=”” content_font_size=”” content_line_height=”” content_letter_spacing=”” content_text_transform=”” content_color=”var(–awb-color8)”]
New Jersey treats childcare and health insurance as mandatory add-ons to basic child support, with specific rules governing how these costs are calculated and allocated. For childcare, only qualified child care expenses count—those necessary for a parent’s employment or job search for children under age 15 or children who are physically or mentally handicapped. The expenses must be reasonable and preferably from licensed sources. Critically, New Jersey doesn’t use the gross childcare cost; instead, parents calculate the net cost after applying federal and state tax credits (Appendix IX-E provides a worksheet for this).
For health insurance costs, courts determine which parent can obtain health insurance coverage for the children at reasonable cost, often through employment-based plans. The monthly premium cost specifically attributable to covering the children is divided between parents proportionally. However, there’s an important limitation: the amount allocated to each parent for health insurance cannot exceed 25% of that parent’s basic child support obligation. This cap prevents health insurance costs from becoming disproportionately burdensome. Uninsured medical expenses—copays, deductibles, prescriptions, dental and orthodontic care, vision care, therapy—are typically shared proportionally as well.
[/fusion_toggle][fusion_toggle title=”Can New Jersey child support orders be modified?” open=”no” awb-switch-editor-focus=”” class=”” id=”” fusion_font_family_title_font=”” fusion_font_variant_title_font=”” title_font_size=”” title_line_height=”” title_letter_spacing=”” title_text_transform=”” title_color=”var(–awb-color8)” hue=”” saturation=”” lightness=”” alpha=”” fusion_font_family_content_font=”” fusion_font_variant_content_font=”” content_font_size=”” content_line_height=”” content_letter_spacing=”” content_text_transform=”” content_color=”var(–awb-color8)”]
Yes, New Jersey child support orders can be modified when there has been a substantial change in circumstances affecting the parents’ financial situations or the children’s needs. Common changes that warrant modification include significant increases or decreases in either parent’s income, involuntary job loss or career changes, changes in the children’s needs such as new medical conditions or educational requirements, or modifications to the parenting time arrangement that affect which worksheet applies (sole versus shared parenting).
New Jersey provides for both administrative reviews through the New Jersey Department of Human Services and court-based modifications depending on how the original order was established. Administrative orders can be reviewed every three years upon request from either parent. It’s crucial to understand that child support obligations continue at the current level until officially modified—you cannot simply reduce payments because your circumstances changed. Any amounts that accrue while awaiting the modification hearing remain your legal obligation unless the court retroactively adjusts them, and courts can only retroactively modify back to the date the motion was filed.
[/fusion_toggle][fusion_toggle title=”What happens if parents can’t agree on child support in New Jersey?” open=”no” awb-switch-editor-focus=”” class=”” id=”” fusion_font_family_title_font=”” fusion_font_variant_title_font=”” title_font_size=”” title_line_height=”” title_letter_spacing=”” title_text_transform=”” title_color=”var(–awb-color8)” hue=”” saturation=”” lightness=”” alpha=”” fusion_font_family_content_font=”” fusion_font_variant_content_font=”” content_font_size=”” content_line_height=”” content_letter_spacing=”” content_text_transform=”” content_color=”var(–awb-color8)”]
When divorcing parents in New Jersey cannot agree on child support (or other financial issues), the court provides structured opportunities for resolution before trial. The process typically begins with the early settlement panel, which occurs a few weeks after discovery ends. Both parents appear at the courthouse together to receive settlement advice from a panel of two or three experienced divorce lawyers who have no involvement in the case. Each parent submits a settlement proposal and a Case Information Statement beforehand, then presents their position to the panel.
If parents don’t settle at the early settlement panel, they proceed to economic mediation—another opportunity to reach agreement with the help of a trained mediator who facilitates negotiation. Throughout this process, parents must complete child support worksheets showing the guideline calculations. Even if parents prefer a different amount, New Jersey requires these worksheets to ensure everyone understands what the guidelines would produce. If parents cannot reach any agreement through settlement panels and mediation, the case proceeds to trial where a judge makes all determinations based on the evidence presented.
[/fusion_toggle][fusion_toggle title=”How does New Jersey enforce child support orders?” open=”no” awb-switch-editor-focus=”” class=”” id=”” fusion_font_family_title_font=”” fusion_font_variant_title_font=”” title_font_size=”” title_line_height=”” title_letter_spacing=”” title_text_transform=”” title_color=”var(–awb-color8)” hue=”” saturation=”” lightness=”” alpha=”” fusion_font_family_content_font=”” fusion_font_variant_content_font=”” content_font_size=”” content_line_height=”” content_letter_spacing=”” content_text_transform=”” content_color=”var(–awb-color8)”]
New Jersey has comprehensive enforcement mechanisms administered primarily through the New Jersey Department of Human Services, Division of Family Development, Child Support Program. The most fundamental enforcement tool is income withholding: nearly all New Jersey child support orders include automatic wage withholding, where the paying parent’s employer deducts support from paychecks and remits it to the New Jersey Family Support Payment Center, which then forwards it to the receiving parent.
When parents fall behind, New Jersey employs increasingly serious enforcement measures. The state intercepts federal and state tax refunds. New Jersey can suspend various licenses including driver’s licenses, professional and occupational licenses, and recreational licenses. The state can place liens on real property, bank accounts, and other assets. For parents with significant arrearages, New Jersey participates in federal programs that can deny or revoke U.S. passports. The state reports delinquent obligors to credit bureaus. In cases of willful non-compliance, courts can hold parents in contempt, potentially resulting in incarceration. New Jersey also participates in the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA), meaning parents who move to other states remain subject to enforcement.
[/fusion_toggle][fusion_toggle title=”What are the major 2025 updates to New Jersey child support guidelines?” open=”no” awb-switch-editor-focus=”” class=”” id=”” fusion_font_family_title_font=”” fusion_font_variant_title_font=”” title_font_size=”” title_line_height=”” title_letter_spacing=”” title_text_transform=”” title_color=”var(–awb-color8)” hue=”” saturation=”” lightness=”” alpha=”” fusion_font_family_content_font=”” fusion_font_variant_content_font=”” content_font_size=”” content_line_height=”” content_letter_spacing=”” content_text_transform=”” content_color=”var(–awb-color8)”]
New Jersey implemented several significant updates to its child support guidelines effective in 2025, reflecting both annual adjustments and the federally-mandated quadrennial review. The most impactful change is the update to Appendix IX-F (Schedule of Child Support Awards) effective September 2025, based on Dr. David Macpherson’s 2024 analysis of 2013-2019 Consumer Expenditure Survey data. This update recalibrated award amounts to reflect current economic realities and inflation, generally resulting in higher child support orders.
For example, in a two-child case where the Parent of Primary Residence has 245 overnights with net income of $1,045 weekly and the Parent of Alternate Residence has net income of $2,007 weekly, support increased from $219 to $276 per week under the new schedule. The self-support reserve increased from $434 to $451 per week as of January 1, 2025. The Case Information Statement (CIS) underwent significant revision effective September 2025, adding new Schedule D for seasonal and occasional expenses like snow removal, lawn care, maintenance, and vehicle registration. These changes mean that even cases with unchanged income levels might see different support calculations simply due to the updated guidelines.
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Lay the groundwork for a peaceful divorce
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