Arizona Child Support Guidelines: Income, Parenting Time, and Deviations

The Arizona child support guidelines use an Income Shares Model: the court combines both parents’ adjusted monthly incomes, looks up a basic support obligation on a built-in schedule, and splits that obligation between the parents in proportion to what each one earns. Health insurance, childcare, and parenting time then adjust the final number. The framework applies to divorce, legal separation, and paternity cases, and the current version took effect in 2022.

How the Formula Works

Start with each parent’s adjusted gross monthly income and add them together. That combined figure gets matched against the Schedule of Basic Support Obligations in the guidelines. You find the row for your combined income, pick the column for the number of children, and read off the basic monthly obligation. The schedule runs from $750 to $30,000 in combined monthly income and covers up to six children.¹

Above $30,000 per month in combined income, the court treats the $30,000 figure as the default unless a parent asks for more and proves the child’s needs justify it. With more than six children, the six-child column controls, and the parent seeking a higher amount carries the burden.¹

Once you have the basic obligation, each parent’s share tracks their percentage of the combined income. A parent earning 60% of the total owes 60% of the obligation; the other owes 40%. Add-ons like insurance premiums and work-related childcare get layered on and split the same way.

What Counts as Income

The guidelines read income broadly. Wages, salaries, commissions, bonuses, pensions, trust distributions, capital gains, Social Security benefits, unemployment and disability insurance, and recurring gifts all count.¹ Non-cash benefits that meaningfully reduce living expenses can also be included. The court is looking at the full financial picture, not just what shows up on a paycheck.

A few sources are excluded. Means-tested public assistance — TANF, SSI, and SNAP — does not count toward a parent’s income for support purposes.¹

Overtime sits in a middle zone. It is neither automatically included nor automatically excluded. The court weighs the parent’s history, the nature of the job, and the recent pattern of hours. Years of consistent overtime will usually be counted. A short run of extra shifts during a temporary crunch likely won’t.¹

Self-Employment Income

For a self-employed parent, income means gross receipts minus the ordinary and necessary expenses of running the business, with a further deduction for half of the self-employment tax actually paid. The court decides which expenses qualify, so aggressive write-offs that look more like personal spending than real business costs can be added back.¹

Seasonal or Fluctuating Income

When earnings swing with the seasons or a parent gets a one-time windfall, the court usually averages income over a longer stretch to produce a stable monthly figure. That keeps the support amount from lurching up or down based on a single month.

When Income Gets Imputed

A parent cannot escape support by refusing to work or by taking a deliberately low-paying job. If earnings are reduced by choice rather than reasonable cause, the court can attribute income based on what the parent is capable of earning, weighing age, education, work history, job skills, and childcare responsibilities.¹

Minimum wage is the floor. But income will not be imputed when the parent has a legitimate reason for lower earnings: a physical or mental disability, enrollment in education or job training that will improve future earning capacity, the need to be home with a child who has significant emotional or physical needs, or receipt of TANF benefits.

Adjustments Before the Incomes Are Combined

Certain obligations come off the top before the two incomes are added together. Spousal maintenance paid to a former spouse or to the other parent in the current case reduces the paying parent’s gross income. Court-ordered child support actually being paid for children from other relationships also reduces income.¹ Note the word “actually.” If a parent has an order for another child but has fallen behind, the full ordered amount is not automatically deducted.

Child-Related Costs Added to the Basic Obligation

Several categories of expense get added on top of the basic obligation and split in the same income proportions:

Health insurance for the child. Only the portion of the premium attributable to the child counts, so a family plan has to be prorated. Dental and vision are not required, but if a parent provides them, those premiums are included too.¹
Childcare paid so a parent can work or look for work. If both parents incur childcare costs, both amounts can be added.¹
Education costs for private school, special schools, or programs addressing particular educational needs, when both parents agree or the court orders it.¹
Extraordinary costs for a gifted or special-needs child beyond what the basic obligation covers.¹

How Parenting Time Changes the Number

Parenting time directly affects the final support amount. Arizona uses a Parenting Time Table that reduces the obligation based on how many days per year the child spends with the parent who has less time. More days with that parent means a larger reduction, because that parent is already covering food, utilities, and other day-to-day costs during those stretches.

The counting is more precise than most people expect. The guidelines break time into blocks:¹

12 hours or more counts as a full day.
6 to 11 hours counts as half a day.
3 to 5 hours counts as a quarter day.
Under 3 hours may count as a quarter day if the parent pays for routine expenses like meals during that time.

That granularity matters for midweek dinners, alternating weekends, and schedules that don’t break neatly into overnights. Blocks add up across the year, and small differences in the total can shift the final support amount noticeably.

When the Court Can Deviate

The formula produces a presumptive amount, but a judge can order something different when applying the guidelines would be unjust. A judge who deviates has to put the reasons in writing, state what the amount would have been under the formula, and state the new amount. The child’s best interests have to be considered, though the guidelines say explicitly that a reduction in support is not automatically contrary to the child’s best interests.¹

Common grounds for deviation include:

A large income gap between parents when both have significant parenting time.
Heavy travel costs to exercise parenting time, especially when those costs plus the standard support would make visitation financially impossible.
One parent paying a disproportionate share of child-related expenses.
A parent’s out-of-pocket medical or mental health costs that the standard support amount would compromise.
Unusual emotional or physical needs of another child in the household that keep a parent from working.

Deviation requests are fact-intensive, and the parent asking for the change carries the burden of showing why the standard calculation falls short.¹

When Child Support Ends

The duty to support a child generally ends when the child turns 18. If the child is still in high school or a high school equivalency program at that point, support continues until the child finishes or turns 19, whichever comes first.² For a child with a severe mental or physical disability that began before the age of majority, the court can order support to continue past 18 indefinitely if the child cannot live independently.³

Support does not stop automatically on a birthday. The paying parent typically needs to confirm the obligation has ended or file to terminate the order in a contested situation. Paying past the legal end date does not automatically earn a refund, so tracking the end date carefully matters.

Modifying an Existing Order

Arizona allows two paths to a modification. Either parent can request a review every three years without having to show any change in circumstances. Before the three-year mark, a parent can request a review by demonstrating a substantial and continuing change — a job loss, a disability, or a significant increase or decrease in wages.⁴

In either case, the recalculated number has to differ from the current order by at least 15%. If it falls short of that threshold, the Division of Child Support Services will decline to file the modification.⁴ The 15% rule keeps minor income fluctuations from triggering constant relitigation while still leaving room for real changes to be reflected.

1
Superior Court of Arizona in Maricopa County. Arizona Child Support Guidelines
2
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 25-501 – Duties of Support Exemption
3
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 25-320 – Child Support Factors Methods of Payment Additional Enforcement Provisions Definitions
4
Arizona Department of Economic Security. CSE-1178A Child Support Modification Packet