VIRGINIA Part 89

Paying a Fair Share

As soon as you have an estimate of what your child support will be, that does not mean that one parent must pay the whole amount. Remember that each parent pays a fair share. The way the amount is split depends on your custody arrangement. For a sole custody arrangement, meaning the child lives with one parent all the time, child support is shared based on proportion of what each parent contributes to combined income. For instance, keeping with our example of $1,000 in combined income above, let’s say you have $400 in income – or 40% – and the other parent has $600 – or 60% - you will be responsible for 40% of $196, which is $78.4. The other parent makes up the difference.