Maine child support calculator

Maine follows the income-shares model. The idea is that a child should receive the same proportion of parental income they would have if the parents lived together. Both parents’ annual gross income is combined and applied to the Child Support Table, and each parent is responsible for the share matching their percentage of the combined income. The parent who does not provide primary residential care pays their share in money; the other is presumed to spend their share directly on the child.

Maine’s table is unusual in two ways. It is indexed by annual combined gross income, from $16,800 to $400,000, but every figure in it is a weekly amount per child — so the entry for three children is what each of the three costs, and you multiply by three to get the entitlement. The statute directs you to the income figure closest to the parents’ combined income rather than rounding in one direction. Above $400,000 the table stops, though the $400,000 figure remains the presumed floor.

Three costs are added to the basic entitlement to make the total basic support obligation: child care for children under 12, the cost of adding the child to private health insurance, and extraordinary medical expenses of a permanent or recurring kind. The total is split by income share. The Table also carries a self-support reserve — a shaded area at the bottom. If the paying parent’s own annual income falls in it, the Table amount at that parent’s income sets the basic obligation regardless of the combined figure, unless that would produce a larger obligation. The shaded area reaches $20,400 for one child, $25,200 for two, $29,400 for three, $32,400 for four, $35,400 for five and $39,600 for six.

Maine does not scale support to an overnight count in the ordinary case. Instead, where the court finds the parties provide substantially equal care for a child, § 2006(5) sets presumptive support by a separate method that reflects two households. Because that turns on a judicial finding rather than a number you can enter, this calculator runs the standard primary-residential-care calculation.

It combines both parents’ annual gross income, reads the Child Support Table, multiplies by the number of children, adds child care and health-insurance costs, applies the self-support reserve, and splits the total by income share. It does not compute gross income from your pay stubs, run the substantially-equal-care method, credit other children a parent supports, or apply a deviation the court may order. For a figure you can file, use the official Maine worksheet or consult an attorney.