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Texas Child Support: Percentages, Net Resources, and the Cap

Reviewed by the Amicably document team · Updated August 6, 2026

Texas figures child support as a percentage of the paying parent's net resources, not gross pay, on a sliding scale from 20 percent for one child up to 40 percent for five or more. The percentage applies only up to a monthly net resources cap that adjusts periodically, and mandatory medical and dental support get ordered on top of that number.

How Texas calculates child support

Texas does not run child support off the obligor's gross paycheck, and it does not weigh both parents' incomes against each other the way an income-shares model would. The Family Code (§ 154.125) applies a guideline percentage to "net resources," a defined monthly figure that starts from gross income and subtracts a short, specific list of deductions, then compares that figure to a cap before the percentage is applied. The number of children in this specific case, not the obligor's total household size or the other parent's income, drives which percentage applies.

Courts treat the resulting number as the presumed correct amount for an agreed or uncontested case. Parents filling out an agreed decree generally plug net resources and the child count into the table below rather than negotiating a number from scratch, which is part of why the guideline schedule matters even in a fully amicable filing.

1. Add up gross income from every source: wages, salary, commissions, overtime, tips, bonuses, self-employment income, net rental income, and most other recurring income actually received.
2. Subtract the allowed deductions: Social Security tax, income tax, union dues, the cost of the child's health and dental insurance, and nondiscretionary retirement contributions. What is left is net resources.
3. Compare net resources to the current monthly cap. The percentage below applies to resources up to that cap.
4. Apply the guideline percentage for the number of children being supported in this case.
5. Add mandatory medical and dental support on top of the percentage amount.

What counts as net resources

Net resources (§ 154.062) is a specific statutory definition, not the number on a pay stub. It includes 100 percent of wage and salary income, commissions, overtime, tips, and bonuses, plus interest, dividends, self-employment income, net rental income, severance pay, retirement and pension income, trust income, annuities, capital gains, and Social Security benefits actually being received.

It excludes return of principal or capital, accounts receivable, and benefits like TANF or foster-care payments. From that total, the guidelines subtract Social Security taxes, income tax figured at a single-person rate, union dues, the cost of the child's health and dental insurance, and nondiscretionary retirement contributions to reach the net resources figure the percentage applies to.

The guideline percentages

Once net resources are set, Texas applies a flat percentage based on how many children are before the court in this case, not how many children the obligor has overall. A separate, lower schedule applies when net resources are under $1,000 a month (see below).

The math is the same at any income under the cap: multiply net resources by the percentage for the number of children. At $4,000 a month in net resources, guideline support for one child is 20 percent of $4,000, or $800 a month; for two children it is 25 percent, or $1,000. Only once net resources reach the cap does the calculation stop scaling and hold flat at the guideline maximum shown in the next section.

The monthly net resources cap

Effective September 1, 2025, the guideline percentages apply to net resources up to $11,700 a month, up from the $9,200 cap that had been in place since September 2019. The Office of the Attorney General publishes the figure in the Texas Register and adjusts it roughly every six years based on the change in the consumer price index.

Only net resources up to that monthly figure are run through the percentage table above; the cap itself, not the percentages, is what changes on the six-year schedule. Below is the guideline maximum the percentages produce at the current cap, by number of children.

The low-income schedule

When the obligor's net resources are under $1,000 a month, a separate, lower schedule applies instead of the standard table: 15% for one child, 20% for two, 25% for three, 30% for four, 35% for five, and not less than 35% for six or more. The lower schedule reflects that a fixed percentage of a very small income leaves too little to live on at the standard rates.

Children in more than one household

When the obligor also supports children from a different relationship, § 154.129 provides alternative percentage tables that account for those other children, rather than applying the standard schedule as if this case were the only family involved. The effect is usually a lower percentage in this case than the standard table alone would produce, because the obligor's net resources have to stretch across more than one household of children.

This matters for anyone comparing a printed guideline chart to a number an attorney or the Office of the Attorney General's own calculator produces: if either parent has other children being supported, in this case or elsewhere, the flat percentages in the table above are a starting point, not the final answer.

Medical and dental support

Texas requires a medical support order and a dental support order in every child support case, ordered separately from and in addition to the guideline percentage amount. "Reasonable cost" for health insurance is defined as not more than 9% of the obligor's annual resources; for dental insurance, not more than 1.5%.

How the payment actually happens

Texas collects child support primarily through income withholding: § 158.001 directs the court or the state's Title IV-D agency to order that support be withheld from the obligor's paycheck. The operative document is the federal Income Withholding for Support order, which goes to the employer directly once the case has an order.

The Attorney General's Child Support Guidelines handout explains this percentage schedule to parents signing an agreed order. See the Texas divorce forms overview for how that handout fits with the rest of the with-children form set.

How long support lasts

Texas child support generally continues until the child turns 18 or graduates from high school, whichever is later, unless the case involves a child whose disability extends the obligation further. Because the obligation ends automatically rather than through a separate court hearing, income withholding typically stops on its own once the paying parent's employer and the state's collection system have the correct end date on file.

None of this changes while a case is open. A decree that sets guideline support on the day it is signed does not update itself later if either parent's net resources change, or if the cap itself moves on its six-year schedule; a later change in circumstances is a separate modification proceeding, not something that happens to an existing order automatically.

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