Arkansas Administrative Order 10: Child Support Guidelines

Arkansas Administrative Order 10 sets the child support guidelines Arkansas courts use to calculate what a parent owes. Since July 1, 2020, the state has followed an income shares model: the court adds both parents’ gross monthly incomes together, looks up a basic support obligation on the Family Support Chart, and each parent pays a share of that obligation proportional to their share of the combined income. The goal is to give children roughly the same financial support they would have received if both parents lived together.

How the Calculation Works

Start with gross monthly income for each parent. Add them together. That combined figure is matched to the Family Support Chart, which lists a basic support obligation for one, two, three, or more children.¹ Each parent then owes a percentage of that basic amount equal to their percentage of the combined income. Earn 60% of the combined total and you owe 60% of the basic obligation.

The 2020 overhaul replaced an older model that looked only at the paying parent’s net income. Working from gross income avoids fights over which deductions should count, because taxes, FICA, and similar withholdings are already baked into the chart figures.²

What Counts as Gross Income

The definition is deliberately wide. The guidelines describe income as covering “the widest range of sources consistent with the State’s policy to interpret ‘income’ broadly for the benefit of the child.”² Wages, salaries, commissions, and bonuses are the obvious pieces, but the list keeps going: business profits, rental income, pensions, Social Security disability, unemployment, worker’s compensation, military pay and housing allowances, tips, royalties, dividends, interest, and recurring capital gains.

Noncash benefits can count too. Employer-provided housing or a company car may be added to your income if they meaningfully reduce your personal expenses. Assets capable of generating income may also be considered.²

Some things are excluded. Means-tested public assistance like TANF, SSI, and food stamps does not count. Neither does child support or foster care money you receive for children outside the case, nor income earned by other people in your household.² One subtraction does apply on your side of the ledger: court-ordered child support you already pay for children from a different case comes off your gross income before the guidelines calculation begins.

Self-Employment Income

Self-employed parents face extra scrutiny. The court doesn’t rely on a single tax return. It reviews the last two years of federal and state returns along with quarterly estimates for the current year. Your reported self-employment income is then adjusted upward to add back retirement plan contributions, alimony paid, and self-employed health insurance premiums, because those figures reduce your taxable income while still representing money available to you.³

Depreciation is treated cautiously. It counts as a deduction only when it reflects an actual decline in the value of a business asset; accelerated schedules taken mainly for tax savings won’t reduce your child support income. If reported income doesn’t line up with lifestyle or earning capacity, the court can throw out the returns and use a net-worth approach based on property and spending patterns.³

Imputed Income

Quitting a job or moving to lower-paying work won’t automatically drop your obligation. If the court finds you’re earning less than you’re capable of without a reasonable explanation, it can assign you income based on your earning capacity. At minimum, any parent ordered to pay support must be credited with at least minimum-wage income.³

Incarceration is treated differently. A sentence of at least 180 days is not considered voluntary unemployment, so income cannot be imputed to a parent behind bars for that reason.⁴

The Family Support Chart

The Family Support Chart is the lookup table that turns combined gross monthly income and number of children into a basic obligation. It starts around $1,050 per month combined income and scales up past $30,000. A few sample figures for perspective:

$2,000 combined monthly income, one child: $323 total obligation
$5,000 combined monthly income, one child: $737 total obligation
$5,000 combined monthly income, two children: $1,081 total obligation
$10,000 combined monthly income, one child: $1,074 total obligation
$10,000 combined monthly income, three children: $1,802 total obligation

These are total obligations before splitting between parents. Your share is your percentage of the combined income.⁵

The chart builds in a self-support reserve of $900 per month, so the paying parent is expected to keep at least that much for basic living costs. At the bottom of the scale, the minimum order is $125 per month regardless of income level or number of children.⁵

Costs Added on Top of the Base Amount

The chart figure covers ordinary costs like food, shelter, and clothing. Certain expenses get added separately and split between parents using the same income percentages that produced the base obligation. Health insurance premiums for the children are mandatory add-ons. So are work-related childcare costs and any extraordinary medical expenses insurance doesn’t cover.³

When Courts Deviate from the Chart

The chart amount is presumed correct. To pay less or receive more, a party has to show the standard figure would be unjust or inappropriate, and the judge must put the reasoning for any deviation in writing and explain how it serves the child’s best interests.⁶

Factors that can justify an adjustment include:

Special education needs for a child with learning disabilities or requirements beyond typical schooling.
Shared or joint custody where the noncustodial parent has extraordinary time with the child.
Financial responsibility for other dependents, even without a court order.
The cost of maintaining life, health, or dental insurance, or covering medical needs like braces or glasses.
Other income or assets available from any source to support the child.
The standard of living the child was accustomed to before the parents separated.

The court can also deviate upward when the chart amount falls below what childcare actually costs in the family’s area.³

Extended Visitation Adjustments

The base calculation assumes visitation every other weekend plus several weeks in the summer. When a child spends more than 14 consecutive days with the noncustodial parent, the court can reduce support during that period to account for day-to-day expenses the visiting parent is covering. The reduction cannot exceed 50% of the regular obligation.³

Courts can spread the reduction across the year so the monthly payment stays steady. A catch: if extended visitation was granted but the noncustodial parent doesn’t actually use it in a given year, the full unadjusted amount is owed for that year.³

Modifying an Order

Support orders aren’t permanent. Arkansas law treats a 20% change in either parent’s gross income as a material change of circumstances sufficient to request modification.⁴ A change in a parent’s ability to provide health insurance can also qualify.

Every 36 months, either parent can request a review through the Office of Child Support Enforcement even without a specific income change. If the current order doesn’t match what today’s Family Support Chart would produce, that inconsistency alone can support a modification.⁷ Two exceptions apply: if the inconsistency exists only because the chart itself was revised, or because the original order was already a court-approved deviation, a chart change alone won’t force recalculation.⁴

A modification takes effect as of the date the other parent is served with the filed motion, not the date the judge signs the new order. Filing promptly protects you against delays in scheduling a hearing.⁴

What Happens If You Don’t Pay

Unpaid child support in Arkansas accrues interest at 10% per year unless the person owed the support asks for no interest.⁸ That interest compounds onto the debt.

Enforcement tools stack up quickly:

Fall three or more months behind and the state can suspend your driver’s license, professional license, occupational license, recreational license, or business license. For law licenses, the trigger is six months. You’ll receive 60 days’ notice and have 30 days to request a hearing.
Once past-due support reaches $2,500, the federal Passport Denial Program blocks you from getting or renewing a passport, and you stay in the system until the debt hits zero or the state removes the case.⁹
The state can refer your case to the federal Treasury Department to intercept part or all of your tax refund. You’ll get a pre-offset notice with the amount owed and your right to challenge it.¹⁰
A judge can hold you in contempt, order you to pay the other parent’s legal fees, place liens on your property, or garnish bank accounts.
Owing $10,000 or more for more than a year can bring misdemeanor charges carrying up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. Fleeing the state to avoid payments is a felony punishable by up to six years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Wage withholding is the default. Most orders include an automatic withholding provision, so your employer sends the payment directly before you see the paycheck.

Taxes

Child support is tax-neutral. The paying parent cannot deduct it, and the receiving parent does not report it as income.¹¹ If a divorce agreement includes both alimony and child support and you pay less than the full amount owed, the IRS applies the shortfall to child support first; only what’s left counts as alimony.

1
Justia. Arkansas Code Administrative Order Number 10 – Child Support Guidelines
2
Justia. Arkansas Code Administrative Order Number 10 Section III – Gross Income
3
Arkansas Judiciary. Administrative Order Number 10 – Arkansas Child Support Guidelines
4
Justia. Arkansas Code 9-14-107 – Change in Income Warranting Modification
5
Arkansas Judiciary. Family Support Chart of Basic Child Support Obligations
6
Justia. Arkansas Code Administrative Order Number 10 – Section II – Use of the Guidelines
7
Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration. Review of Order Amounts
8
Justia. Arkansas Code 9-14-233 – Interest and Attorneys Fees
9
Administration for Children and Families. Passport Denial Program 101
10
Administration for Children and Families. How Does a Federal Tax Refund Offset Work
11
Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 452, Alimony and Separate Maintenance