Alabama CS-41 Income Statement Affidavit: Filing and CS-42 Use

The Alabama CS-41 form is the sworn income statement each parent must complete and file in any case that establishes or modifies child support. You can download the current version (revised July 2019) from the Alabama Administrative Office of Courts e-forms page, fill it in on your computer or by hand, and then sign it in front of a notary public or court clerk before filing it with the court where your case is pending.¹

Rule 32 of the Alabama Rules of Judicial Administration requires both parents to file a CS-41 in every action to establish or modify a support obligation, and the form becomes part of the record.² That covers initial divorce and custody cases, paternity actions, and petitions to modify an existing order. Skip it or file it late and your case stalls, because the judge cannot run the guideline calculation without income figures from both sides.

Where to Download the Current Version

The official CS-41 lives on the Alabama Unified Judicial System’s e-forms site at eforms.alacourt.gov. Open the Child Support Forms page and download the PDF labeled “Child Support Obligation Income Statement, Affidavit.”¹ You can type into the PDF fields on a computer or print it and complete it by hand. Use only the current revision dated 7/2019; older versions posted to county sites may be outdated.

Records to Pull Together First

Accurate numbers matter. The form itself requires you to keep “all income documentation used in preparing this Income Statement/Affidavit (including my most recent income-tax return)” and to produce it if the court directs.³ Before you sit down with the CS-41, gather:

Two to three months of consecutive pay stubs showing gross earnings, overtime, and any variable pay.
Your most recent federal and state tax returns, especially if you have self-employment, rental, or investment income.
Any existing support or alimony order you already pay under, showing the monthly amount, case number, county, and state.
Health insurance documentation with your monthly premium and the total number of people on the plan.
Monthly totals from your childcare or after-school provider for work-related care.

Filling Out the Form Section by Section

The CS-41 runs two pages. The front collects your identifying information, income, and existing obligations. The back reprints Rule 32 definitions for reference; nothing needs to be filled in there.

Header

Enter the case number, the court type (Circuit or District), the county, and the plaintiff’s and defendant’s names. Write your name as the affiant, check whether you are the plaintiff, defendant, or other party, and provide the last three digits of your Social Security number.³

Employment Status

Check whether you are currently employed. If you are, list your employer’s name and address. If you are not, give your last employer’s name and address, your last position, and your average monthly salary during your last year of employment.³ Complete these fields even if you are unemployed. Leaving them blank invites the court to impute income based on whatever evidence the other parent presents.

Monthly Gross Income

The income block has four lines: employment income, self-employment income, other employment-related income (commissions or bonuses), and other non-employment-related income (dividends, rental income, Social Security, and similar). Enter each as a monthly figure and total them on the line provided.

Convert any pay schedule that does not align with calendar months. For a biweekly paycheck, multiply gross pay by 26 and divide by 12. For weekly pay, multiply by 52 and divide by 12. The number you report is gross, not take-home.

Childcare, Prior Obligations, and Children

A separate line asks for monthly work-related childcare costs. Enter only the amount tied to employment or job searching, not general babysitting. List the children who are the subject of this case by name. Then report any child support or alimony you already pay under a different court order, including the case number, county, state, and monthly amount.

Health-Care Coverage

Check whether the children are not covered, covered by Medicaid or other public coverage, or covered by private insurance. If you pay for private coverage, enter your monthly premium, any amount paid on your behalf (such as an employer contribution), and the total number of people on the plan. The form walks you through the pro rata share for the children: divide the premium by the number of people covered, then multiply by the number of children in this case.⁴

What Counts as Income and What Doesn’t

Rule 32 defines gross income broadly. It includes salaries, wages, commissions, bonuses, dividends, severance pay, pensions, interest, trust income, annuities, capital gains, Social Security benefits, veterans’ benefits, workers’ compensation, unemployment benefits, disability benefits, gifts, prizes, and alimony you already receive.² If you are self-employed or earn rental or royalty income, gross income means gross receipts minus ordinary and necessary business expenses, not total revenue.

Several categories are excluded. Child support you receive for other children does not count. Neither do means-tested public assistance benefits, including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Supplemental Security Income, SNAP, and general assistance.³ The back of the CS-41 reprints these definitions for quick reference.

Signing Before a Notary

Your CS-41 is not valid until you sign it under oath. The signature block reads “Sworn to and subscribed before me” and requires a notary public or a court clerk to witness your signature and stamp the document.³ Banks, shipping stores, and the clerk’s office at your local courthouse commonly have a notary available. Bring valid photo ID so the notary can confirm your identity before administering the oath.

Take the affidavit seriously. It warns that “any intentional falsification of the information presented in this Income Statement/Affidavit may subject me to the penalties of perjury.”³ Understating income damages your credibility with the judge and can trigger criminal exposure.

Filing and Serving the Form

Once notarized, file the original with the Clerk of the Circuit Court or District Court in the county where the case is pending. Alabama’s electronic filing system, AlaFile, is available to licensed attorneys and to self-represented (pro se) litigants, though pro se access is limited in some divisions and is not currently available in the Juvenile division.⁵ If you file in person, bring at least two extra copies: one for your records and one to serve on the other parent.

You then have to serve a copy on the other side so they can review your financial claims before the hearing. If the other parent has an attorney, you can generally send the copy to the attorney. If not, service usually runs through the sheriff’s office or a private process server. The clerk’s office can explain what service options your county uses.

If You Are Unemployed or Underemployed

Being out of work does not mean the court assigns you zero income. If the judge finds that you are voluntarily unemployed or underemployed, Rule 32(B)(5) requires the court to estimate what you could earn and impute that amount for the support calculation.⁶ The court weighs your work history, job skills, education, age, health, criminal record, assets, the local job market, and prevailing wages in the community. That is why completing the last-employer, last-position, and average-salary fields on the CS-41 matters even when you have no current paycheck to report.

How the CS-41 Feeds the CS-42 Calculation

The CS-41 is not where the final support number comes from. It is the raw income data that feeds Form CS-42 (or CS-42-S for split custody), the actual Child Support Guidelines worksheet. On the CS-42, the court combines both parents’ adjusted gross incomes, looks up the basic obligation on the Schedule of Basic Child Support Obligations, then adds health-care coverage costs and work-related childcare to reach the total obligation. That total is divided between the parents in proportion to each one’s share of combined adjusted gross income.⁴ Errors on the CS-41 carry straight into the CS-42 math, which is why the income figures on the front end drive the outcome.

Using CS-41 for a Modification

A new CS-41 is required each time a parent petitions to change an existing order. You file the petition in the same court that issued the original order and show a material change in circumstances that is substantial and continuing.⁷ Common examples include a significant income change, a change in custody, increased medical or educational expenses for the child, or the birth of another child.

Rule 32 creates a rebuttable presumption that modification is warranted when the recalculated amount differs from the existing order by more than ten percent.⁷ The judge still has discretion. A ten-percent swing does not guarantee a change, and a smaller swing does not bar one if you can prove a material change. Quitting your job or cutting your hours to lower your income and then asking for a reduction will not work; the change must be involuntary and in good faith.

Both parents file updated CS-41 forms, and the court runs the CS-42 calculation fresh with current numbers. Any modification applies only to payments accruing after the date you file the petition, not retroactively.⁷ The need to provide health-care coverage for the children is, on its own, a sufficient basis to modify an order even if the dollar amount of support does not need to change.

1
Alabama Administrative Office of Courts. Child Support Forms
2
Alabama Judicial System. Rule 32 Child-Support Guidelines
3
Alabama Unified Judicial System. Alabama Child Support Obligation Income Statement/Affidavit
4
Alabama Judicial System. Alabama Rules of Judicial Administration Rule 32 – Child-Support Guidelines
5
Alabama Administrative Office of Courts. Electronic Filing
6
Alabama Judicial System. Alabama Rules of Judicial Administration Rule 32 – Child-Support Guidelines
7
Alabama Judicial System. Alabama Rules of Judicial Administration Rule 32 – Child-Support Guidelines