Child Support Percentage in Georgia: Income, Table, and Deviations

There is no fixed child support percentage in Georgia. The state uses an Income Shares Model that combines both parents’ adjusted gross incomes, looks up a base dollar obligation on a statutory table, and divides that obligation between the parents in proportion to what each one earns. So the “percentage” that ends up mattering in your case is your share of the two incomes, applied to a number the table sets, not a flat cut of your paycheck.

How the Calculation Actually Works

The premise of the Income Shares Model is that a child should get the same proportion of parental income they would have received if the parents lived together. To get there, Georgia adds both parents’ adjusted gross incomes, pulls a base child support obligation from the table for that combined income and the number of children, and then splits the total by income share.¹

A quick example. If one parent brings in 65% of the combined income and the other 35%, the higher earner is responsible for 65% of the total obligation. Health insurance premiums for the child and work-related childcare are added to the base amount and split the same way. The noncustodial parent’s share of that total becomes the actual monthly payment. Courts call the result the “presumptive amount of child support” and treat it as correct unless someone shows a good reason to deviate.

What Counts as Income

Georgia defines gross income broadly. It’s every source of income before taxes, earned or unearned. The statute lists more than 20 categories, and the common ones include salary, self-employment earnings, bonuses, overtime, commissions, tips, severance, retirement and pension income, interest, dividends, trust income, capital gains, Social Security disability, VA disability, workers’ compensation, and unemployment.²

Less obvious sources count too: cash gifts, lottery winnings, prizes, lawsuit judgments, alimony received from someone other than the other parent in this case, and assets used to support the family. Self-employment income is gross receipts minus ordinary and reasonable business expenses; courts will disallow inflated write-offs for things like excessive travel, personal living costs, or a home office that isn’t really one.²

Adjustments to Reach Adjusted Gross Income

Before the two incomes are combined, only three deductions are allowed:

Half of any self-employment taxes you pay.
Current child support you already pay under a prior court order for other children.
A theoretical support amount for other qualified children living with you who aren’t part of this case.

That’s the full list. Income taxes, health insurance premiums for yourself, and other paycheck deductions do not reduce adjusted gross income for this calculation.¹

The Basic Child Support Obligation Table

Once you have combined adjusted gross income, you match it against Georgia’s Basic Child Support Obligation Table. The table lists a specific dollar figure for each income level and number of children, and it runs from a combined monthly income of $800 up to $40,000.³

Some scale: at a combined adjusted monthly income of $1,000, the basic obligation is $211 for one child and $322 for two. The obligation climbs as combined income rises, though not in a straight line. Above $40,000 in combined monthly income, the court sets support at the table maximum and can add an upward deviation from there.³

Add the child’s health insurance premium and any work-related childcare on top of the table amount, split the whole thing by income share, and the noncustodial parent’s share is the payment.

How Parenting Time Changes the Number

Effective January 1, 2026, Georgia’s updated statute includes a formal parenting time adjustment. Before this change, shared custody was handled case by case through discretionary deviations. The new formula calculates an adjustment based on the number of court-ordered days each parent spends with the child over a two-year period, averaged annually.¹

“Days” generally means overnights. If a parent has regular recurring daytime periods rather than overnights, the total hours are divided by 24 to produce an equivalent day count. The formula weights each parent’s share of the basic obligation by the time they have with the child. In practice, more parenting time for the noncustodial parent produces a lower payment, because that parent is already covering more of the child’s daily costs directly.¹

When the Court Can Go Above or Below the Table

The presumptive amount is a starting point, not a ceiling or a floor. A Georgia court can adjust it up or down when applying the table would be unjust or inappropriate, but only if the deviation is in the child’s best interest. The court has to put its reasoning in writing and note what the presumptive amount would have been.²

The statute lists specific grounds a court can use to deviate:

High income above the $40,000 table ceiling.
Extraordinary uninsured medical expenses that create extreme economic hardship.
Travel expenses tied to long-distance visitation.
Dental or vision insurance carried for the child at reasonable cost.
Life insurance premiums for a policy naming the child as beneficiary.
Alimony flowing between the parents.
Mortgage costs that benefit the child.
The federal child and dependent care tax credit going to one parent.

One hard limit: no deviation can leave the custodial parent unable to keep basic housing, food, and clothing for the child.²

Low-Income Adjustment

Georgia recognizes that a noncustodial parent earning very little cannot pay the same share as someone comfortable. Under the pre-2026 version of the statute, a noncustodial parent facing extreme hardship could request a low-income deviation, with a floor of $100 per month for one child plus $50 for each additional child in the same case.²

The 2026 update replaces that with a low-income adjustment table in subsection (p). If a parent’s monthly adjusted gross income falls below the threshold for the relevant number of children, the obligation is the lesser of the presumptive amount or the amount from the low-income table. Georgia’s online child support calculator runs the comparison automatically.¹

When a Judge Can Assign You Income You Aren’t Earning

Courts don’t have to take a parent’s reported income at face value. If a parent is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed, the judge can impute income based on what that parent could reasonably earn. That closes off the option of quitting a job or taking a pay cut to shrink a support obligation.

To set an imputed figure, the court looks at education, work history, skills, and past wages. If none of that is available, it can impute income at a 40-hour week at minimum wage. The same rules apply when a parent won’t produce reliable financial records like tax returns or pay stubs. Military activation is the one clear exception: a parent called to active duty from the National Guard or another armed forces unit will not be treated as voluntarily unemployed.²

Changing the Number Later

Georgia generally limits modification requests to once every two years. The parent asking for the change has to show a substantial change in circumstances, meaning a significant, ongoing shift in one parent’s finances or the child’s needs.

Three situations let you file sooner:

Involuntary loss of income, such as a layoff or disability.
The noncustodial parent isn’t exercising the visitation the order provides.
The noncustodial parent is exercising significantly more parenting time than the order contemplated.

Quitting a job voluntarily or accepting a pay cut won’t get you a lower obligation. In that scenario the court can impute income and either leave the existing order alone or raise it.

1
Justia. Georgia Code 19-6-15 – Child Support Guidelines for Determining Amount of Award
2
Justia. Georgia Code 19-6-15 – Child Support Guidelines for Determining Amount of Award
3
Georgia Courts. Basic Child Support Obligation Table