Child support · Arkansas
Arkansas child support calculator
Arkansas uses an income-shares model: both parents’ gross monthly income is combined and applied to the Family Support Chart, childcare and health-insurance costs are added, and the total is split in proportion to income. This calculator applies Administrative Order No. 10 and shows every step.
Calculate guideline support
Enter both parents’ gross monthly income. Add childcare costs and the children’s health-insurance premium or extraordinary medical expenses if any.
Method & source
Show the work Step-by-step calculation
The basic obligation schedule
The heart of the calculation is the Family Support Chart attached to Administrative Order No. 10 — for each number of children (one to six) and each level of combined gross monthly income, it gives the basic obligation the two parents together owe. It runs up to $30,000 combined per month in $50 bands, and each figure in the income column is the top of its band: the Chart’s first row is labelled 1–1050. Above $30,000 the highest Chart amount is used and the court may add to it.
Family Support Chart of Basic Child Support Obligations; Admin. Order No. 10, Section I.
Childcare, health coverage and the self-support reserve
Three extra costs are added to the basic obligation: health-insurance premiums, extraordinary medical expenses over $250 per child per year, and childcare costs. The sum is the presumptive obligation, split by income share. The Chart also carries a self-support reserve of $900 a month, marked as a shaded area. If the Chart amount for the payor’s own income falls in that area, support is computed on the payor’s income alone and the three extra costs drop out; below $900 of gross monthly income a presumptive $125 minimum order issues. The shaded area reaches $1,150 for one child, $1,350 for two, $1,500 for three, $1,600 for four, $1,700 for five and $1,800 for six.
Admin. Order No. 10, Section II.3 (self-support reserve, minimum order) and Section IV.
Parenting time and deviations
The Guidelines assume the payor has the children in their home for fewer than 141 overnights a year, and provide an adjustment above that figure. Where the parties share time roughly equally, Administrative Order No. 10 uses a separate shared-custody calculation. Because both need the exact overnight count, this calculator computes the standard obligation before any parenting-time adjustment.
Admin. Order No. 10, Section II.2 (deviations); Section V.2 (shared custody).
A number with the method attached is the honest form of the same figure.
What this calculator does not do
It combines both parents’ gross income, reads the Family Support Chart, adds childcare and health-insurance costs, splits the total by income share, and applies the shaded self-support-reserve rule. It does not compute gross income from your pay stubs, run the parenting-time or shared-custody adjustments, credit the payor for expenses paid out of pocket, or apply a deviation the court may order. For a figure you can file, use the official Worksheet and Affidavit of Financial Means or consult an attorney.
Common questions
How is child support calculated in Arkansas?
Combine both parents’ gross monthly income, read the Family Support Chart for the number of children, add childcare, health-insurance and extraordinary medical costs, and split the total in proportion to income. The payor parent pays their share.
What is the Arkansas family support chart?
The income-shares table attached to Administrative Order No. 10 — indexed by combined gross monthly income (up to $30,000 in $50 bands) and one to six children. It superseded the old payor-income-only chart in 2020.
What is the self-support reserve?
A $900 monthly reserve built into the Chart’s shaded area. If the Chart amount for the payor’s own income falls there, support is computed on the payor’s income alone and the extra costs are excluded; under $900 of gross income a rebuttable $125 minimum order issues.
What about parenting time?
The Guidelines assume fewer than 141 overnights a year with the payor and adjust above that; where time is shared roughly equally, a separate shared-custody calculation applies.
Is child support taxable in Arkansas?
No — federally it’s not taxable to the recipient or deductible by the payer, the same in Arkansas as everywhere.
Sources
- Family Support Chart (Administrative Order No. 10): combined gross monthly income (1–$30,000 in $50 bands) by one to six children. All 580 rows parsed and verified two ways — text extraction and coordinate-grid reconstruction agree on every row — and three independent official copies match cell for cell: the adopted order 2022 Ark. 185, the Court’s published amendments, and the monthly Chart the Arkansas Judiciary publishes today.
- 2022 Ark. 185 (October 6, 2022) adopted the current Administrative Order No. 10; the Chart’s figures are unchanged from the July 2020 chart, which is how the two documents cross-check. The shaded self-support-reserve area was read directly from the shading in the official Chart PDF and independently confirmed by the Chart’s own arithmetic — the phase-in increments end at exactly the same row in all six columns — giving $1,150 / $1,350 / $1,500 / $1,600 / $1,700 / $1,800.
- Arkansas Judiciary, Arkansas Child Support Guidelines (Worksheet, Chart and Affidavit of Financial Means): arcourts.gov.
Chart verified against Administrative Order No. 10 — July 2026 · educational, not legal advice