Minnesota uses an “income shares” model, which bases support on the combined gross income of both parents. This guide covers the following:
- How the calculation works.
- What happens when a parent has little or no income.
- How parenting time affects the outcome.
- When courts can deviate from the standard guidelines.
Minnesota’s child support calculation is made up of three components: basic support, medical support, and child-care support. Basic support is the core calculation, and it depends on each parent’s share of what the state calls “parental income for child support,” or PICS.
Here’s how the process works:
- Each parent’s gross monthly income is calculated.
- Certain items are excluded from gross income, including child support received, public assistance, and a current spouse’s income. Court-ordered spousal maintenance obligations are deducted from monthly gross income.
- The parents’ adjusted gross incomes are added together to produce the combined PICS.
- That combined PICS figure and the number of joint children are used to look up the presumptive basic support amount in Minnesota’s guideline child support chart.
- The non-custodial parent’s share of the basic support amount is then calculated based on the non-custodial parent’s share of combined income. (The custodial parent is presumed to be paying their share out of pocket.)
This presumptive amount is a rebuttable presumption. Courts can order a different amount, but only if specific statutory criteria are met.
What is Included in Gross Income?
Under Minn. Stat. § 518A.29, parent’s gross monthly income includes any form of periodic payment including but not limited to:
- Wages
- Commissions
- Workers’ compensation benefits
- Unemployment benefits
- Annuity payments
- Spousal maintenance received
- Military and naval retirement payments
- Pensions
- Disability benefits
- Self-employment income
- Social Security or veterans’ benefits for the parent and for the child if based on the parent’s eligibility
- Potential income under Minn. Stat. § 518A.32 (discussed below)
- Expense reimbursements or in-kind payments received in the course of employment or self-employment, if they reduce personal living expenses
When a Parent Has Little or No Income
Not every case involves two parents with steady, documented income. Minnesota law addresses situations where a parent is unemployed, underemployed, or has no verifiable income.
If a parent is voluntarily unemployed, underemployed, working less than full-time, or has no direct evidence of income, the court calculates support using that parent’s potential income. Potential income under Minn. Stat. § 518A.32 can be determined in a few ways:
- By imputing income based on the parent’s probable earnings, considering employment potential, recent work history, and occupational qualifications.
- By using unemployment or workers’ compensation payments as the parent’s income, if applicable.
- By imputing income based on full-time work at 150 percent of the current federal or state minimum wage, whichever is higher.
A parent is not treated as voluntarily unemployed or underemployed if their reduced income is temporary, the result of a genuine career change that benefits the child in the long run, or the result of physical or mental incapacity, incarceration, or eligibility for general assistance or supplemental Social Security income.
Low-income cases require additional steps. Before calculating support, the court subtracts a monthly self-support reserve from the paying parent’s PICS, equal to 120 percent of the federal poverty guideline for one person. This gives the income available for child support.
- If income available for support meets or exceeds the guideline amount, the court orders the full guideline support.
- If it falls between the minimum and guideline amounts, the court reduces the obligation, first by cutting medical and child-care support, then basic support.
- If gross income falls below 120 percent of the federal poverty guideline, a minimum support order applies: $50 for one child, $60 for two, $70 for three, $80 for four, $90 for five, and $100 for six or more under Minn. Stat. §518A.42.
These minimums don’t apply to obligors who are incarcerated, receiving certain public assistance benefits, or found by the court to have no income and no ability to earn any.
Parenting Time Impact on Child Support
Parenting time is factored directly into the support calculation through a parenting expense adjustment.
- If parenting time and both parents’ incomes are equal, no basic support is typically ordered, unless the court finds that child-related expenses aren’t being shared equally.
- If parenting time is equal but incomes differ, the higher-earning parent pays basic support to the other parent.
- Outside of equal parenting time, the paying parent receives an adjustment to their basic support obligation based on the percentage of court-ordered parenting time.
This structure is meant to reflect that a parent who spends more time with the child is already covering a share of daily living costs directly.
When Courts Can Deviate from the Guidelines
Minnesota’s guideline chart produces a presumptive amount, but courts have discretion to deviate from it based on specific factors under Minn. Stat. § 518A.43, including:
- The earnings, income, circumstances, and resources of both parents.
- Extraordinary financial needs, physical and emotional conditions, and educational needs of the child.
- The child’s expected living standard had the parents remained together, adjusted for the reality of two households.
- Whether the child has lived abroad for over a year in a country with a substantially different cost of living.
- Which parent claims the dependency tax exemption, and the financial benefit that provides.
- The parents’ debts to private creditors.
- The obligor’s total court-ordered child support payments across all cases.
- In cases involving out-of-home placement, whether redirecting support to reimburse the county would interfere with a reunification plan or the child’s needs afterward.
Courts may also decline to order basic support from a parent with 10 to 45 percent parenting time if a significant income disparity between the parents would make payment detrimental to the child. Any deviation requires the court to issue specific written findings explaining why departing from the guidelines serves the child’s best interests. As a result, two parents with identical incomes and the same number of children can end up with different support orders, depending on their individual circumstances.
Child Care and Medical Support Costs
Beyond basic support, Minnesota orders address two additional cost categories under Minn. Stat. § 518A.26:
- Child-care costs: Work and education related child-care expenses are allocated between parents based on their proportionate share of combined PICS, adjusted for estimated federal and state child-care tax credits. If the paying parent qualifies for basic sliding fee child-care assistance, the court may order the lower co-payment amount instead.
- Medical support: The cost of private health coverage and any unreimbursed or uninsured health-related expenses are divided in proportion to each parent’s share of combined PICS. This amount counts as child support but isn’t subject to a cost-of-living adjustment.
When Does Minnesota Child Support End?
A Minnesota support order generally terminates when the child turns 18 or finishes secondary school, whichever comes later, but no later than age 20. Support can continue indefinitely if the child is incapable of self-support due to a physical or mental condition. (Minn. Stat. § 518A.26, subd. 5).
Parents can also agree, in writing and with court approval, to extend support beyond these standard endpoints, such as through college. Courts can modify these private agreements if they determine the terms no longer serve the child’s best interests. If a paying parent has fallen behind on payments by the time the child reaches the age of majority, enforcement mechanisms like income withholding can continue until the arrears are paid, unless the public authority discontinues services because the arrearage is under $500.
Most Recent Child Support Changes: The 2023 Guideline Updates
Minnesota’s most recent major review of its child support guidelines took effect in 2023. Key changes included:
- An updated basic support table reflecting current child-rearing costs based on US economic data.
- A new low-income adjustment for parents with combined monthly income of $6,000 or less.
- New minimum support order amounts.
- Revised calculations for deductions related to non-joint children, expanded to cover all legal non-joint children.
- A self-support reserve available to both parents, not just the non-custodial parent, now deducted from PICS rather than gross income.
- A new deviation factor specifically for low-income families.
- An extension of the basic support table’s income cap to combined monthly income of $20,000.
Key Takeaways
Minnesota’s income shares model ties child support directly to both parents’ combined earnings, adjusted for parenting time, child-care, medical costs, and a range of deviation factors.
Because so many variables affect the final number, two families with similar incomes can see different results depending on their specific circumstances.
Anyone calculating or contesting a support order should work through each component individually: gross income, PICS, parenting time adjustments, and any applicable deviation factors, rather than relying on the guideline chart alone.
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Family Law Software is a cloud-based platform that combines Minnesota child support calculations with maintenance tools, tax impact analysis, property division, side-by-side scenario comparisons, and more.
Helpful Resources:
Free 14-day trial of Family Law Software for lawyers and professionals: https://site.familylawsoftware.com/cloudtrial/
Free Family Law Software tool for parents: https://www.familylawsoftware.com/freechildsupport/
Minnesota Child Support Division Guidelines Calculator: https://childsupportcalculator.dhs.state.mn.us/