WEST VIRGINIA Part 18

How to use the Guidelines: the Worksheets

West Virginia’s child support guidelines are simply a formula. You plug in your number of children and both parents’ adjusted gross income to come up with the basic child support amount. It would cause less math-induced anxiety, perhaps, if the calculations ended there, but the result would not necessarily be fair. To arrive at an amount that accommodates the particulars of each parent’s financial life and the child’s needs, a court will consider other factors. For example, you might deserve a credit for providing health insurance. That’s where the worksheets come in handy.

The worksheets are a tool to come up with your minimum, required amount of child support. Both parents must use the worksheets even if they settle on an amount between themselves. There are two of them: Worksheet A and Worksheet B.