Child Support en Massachusetts: Cálculo, Solicitud y Modificación

Child support in Massachusetts is set by a state formula that uses both parents’ incomes to decide how much each contributes, and if you speak Spanish you have the right to a free court interpreter, translated forms, and bilingual help at every stage of the process. The 2025 Child Support Guidelines, effective December 1, 2025, govern how courts calculate the amount. Everything below explains how the calculation works, how to file, how to change or enforce an order, and where to find support in Spanish.

Your Right to Spanish Interpretation and Translated Materials

Massachusetts law guarantees you the right to a court interpreter if you are not fluent in English, and you do not have to request it in advance to preserve it. Even if you initially waive an interpreter, you can change your mind at any stage of the proceeding.¹ Spanish is the most frequently requested language in Massachusetts courts, and the Trial Court’s Office of Language Access fills interpreter requests daily across roughly 140 court locations, including every Probate and Family Court division.²

Interpretation inside the courthouse is free. One boundary to be aware of: the Office of Language Access does not translate individual case documents or pieces of evidence. For those you would need to hire a professional translator or contact an interpreter from the court’s Public Release Roster.

Outside court, the Massachusetts Trial Court website publishes translated forms and informational materials in Spanish, and the Department of Revenue’s Child Support Services Division also offers Spanish-language resources. Local legal aid organizations often have bilingual staff who can walk you through filing, reading an order, or responding to enforcement. If you need help locating these services, you can reach the Office of Language Access at OLA2@jud.state.ma.us.²

How the Support Amount Is Calculated

Massachusetts follows the Income Shares Model. The idea behind it is that a child should receive the same share of parental income they would have received if both parents lived together. The court adds both parents’ gross incomes, applies a formula to decide how much of that combined total should go toward the child, and then splits the obligation in proportion to each parent’s share of the combined income. If one parent earns $80,000 and the other earns $40,000, the higher earner is responsible for roughly two-thirds of the calculated support.

On top of that base number, the court adds the cost of work-related childcare and the cost of health insurance premiums for the child, and splits those in the same income-based proportion. The guidelines apply to combined annual gross incomes up to $450,000. When combined income exceeds that cap, the amount calculated at $450,000 becomes the floor, and the judge has discretion to go higher.³

You can estimate what the guidelines would produce in your case using the free online worksheet, form CJD-304, on the Trial Court’s website.⁴

What Counts as Income

The guidelines define income broadly. It includes wages, salary, overtime, tips, self-employment earnings, bonuses, commissions, Social Security retirement and disability benefits, veterans’ benefits not based on financial need, pensions, unemployment compensation, workers’ compensation, rental income, dividends, interest, capital gains that represent a regular income source, and lottery or gambling winnings. If money comes in on a recurring basis, it likely counts.

Some things are specifically excluded. Need-based public assistance such as TAFDC, SNAP, and Supplemental Security Income does not count as income for either parent. The court can also consider, at its discretion, a child’s own unearned income.

Parenting Time and Custody Adjustments

The base calculation assumes the child lives primarily with one parent and spends roughly one-third of the time with the other. If your schedule differs significantly, the amount changes. The worksheet has built-in settings for three arrangements:³

Primary custody, where one parent has the child about two-thirds of the time. This is what the formula assumes by default.
Shared custody, where both parents share financial responsibility and parenting time roughly equally.
Split custody, where in families with more than one child, each parent provides the primary home for at least one of them.

When the non-residential parent spends substantially less than a third of the time with the child, the court can push the number up. When that parent spends substantially more than a third but less than half, the court can bring it down.

When a Judge Can Set a Different Amount

The guidelines produce a presumptive number, but a judge can deviate from it when the facts warrant. Common reasons include a child with extraordinary medical, physical, or developmental needs; unusually high health insurance premiums; substantial travel costs to exercise parenting time; incarceration of the paying parent with insufficient resources; a self-support concern where the guideline amount would leave a parent unable to cover basic living expenses; and a gross disparity in standard of living between the two households.⁵

There is also an important guardrail. When the guidelines would require the paying parent to hand over 40% or more of their available income as current support, there is a rebuttable presumption that the amount creates a substantial hardship. The paying parent does not have to prove hardship from scratch; the court starts from the assumption that the number is too high, and the other side has the burden of showing otherwise.⁵

Establishing Parentage If You Were Not Married

A court cannot order child support for a child born to unmarried parents until legal parentage is established. There are two paths. The simpler one is a Voluntary Acknowledgment of Parentage, which both parents can sign at the hospital when the child is born or at any point afterward. The other is a court order, which may involve genetic testing if parentage is disputed.⁶

If you receive public assistance or MassHealth, you are required to cooperate with the Department of Revenue’s efforts to establish parentage and obtain a support order as a condition of those benefits. Refusing to cooperate can reduce your benefits unless you qualify for a good cause waiver, such as in situations involving domestic violence.⁶

How to File for Child Support

Through the Department of Revenue

The DOR’s Child Support Services Division will establish, enforce, or modify an order on your behalf at no charge. You can enroll online at childsupport.mass.gov, submit a paper application by mail, or leave a completed intake form at the Register’s Office in court on the day a support order is entered.⁷ You will need basic identifying information for yourself and your employer, including names, addresses, phone numbers, Social Security number, driver’s license number, and email.⁸

Through the Probate and Family Court

You can also go directly to the Probate and Family Court by filing a Complaint for Support. A complaint for child support filed under G.L. c. 209, § 32F has no filing fee.⁹ The other parent must then be formally served with the complaint and summons, usually by a sheriff or constable. The other parent has 20 days from service to file an answer.¹⁰ The court then schedules a hearing where a judge reviews both financial statements, applies the guidelines, and issues an order.

In court, you must file a Financial Statement. If you earn less than $75,000 per year before taxes, you file the Short Form (CJD-301S). If you earn $75,000 or more, you file the Long Form.¹¹ You will also complete the Child Support Guidelines Worksheet (CJD-304) to show the judge your proposed calculation.⁴ Having pay stubs, W-2 forms, and recent tax returns on hand will speed things up.

Changing an Order After It’s Entered

If something changes after a support order is in place, the only legal way to change the amount is to go back to the court that entered the original order and file a Complaint for Modification. Stopping or reducing payments on your own can lead to contempt charges and growing arrears.¹²

Courts commonly approve modifications when the current order no longer matches what the guidelines would produce, when health insurance that used to be available at a reasonable cost no longer is, when affordable insurance has become available where it wasn’t before, or when a material change in circumstances has occurred, such as job loss, a significant income shift, or a change in the child’s living arrangements. Either parent can request the modification, and the judge decides whether the change justifies a new amount.¹²

When the Other Parent Doesn’t Pay

Massachusetts gives the Department of Revenue strong enforcement tools. The most immediate one is income withholding. Every child support order includes automatic withholding from the paying parent’s income. Employers must begin deducting within three days of getting the withholding notice and send the money to the state disbursement unit within seven business days. This withholding takes priority over almost all other garnishments and legal claims against the same income.¹³

When a parent falls behind, the DOR can raise withholding by 25% above the current obligation until the arrears are paid off. Beyond wage garnishment, the DOR has authority to suspend or revoke driver’s licenses, professional licenses, and recreational licenses for parents who owe overdue support.¹⁴ Federal law independently requires every state to maintain these license-suspension procedures.¹⁵ An employer who retaliates against a worker because of a withholding order, by firing, suspending, or refusing to hire them, faces civil liability and a penalty of up to $1,000.¹³

When Child Support Ends

In Massachusetts, child support generally continues until the child turns 18. The court can extend it in two situations:

Up to age 21, if the child lives in a parent’s home and is principally dependent on that parent for financial support.
Up to age 23, if the child lives in a parent’s home, is principally dependent on that parent, and is enrolled in an educational program. This extension does not cover education beyond an undergraduate degree.

Support does not automatically stop at 18. If the original order has no end date, or if the child meets the conditions above, the paying parent usually needs to file a motion asking the court to terminate the obligation.¹⁶

How Child Support Is Treated for Taxes

Child support payments are not deductible for the parent who pays them and are not taxable income for the parent who receives them.¹⁷ For the child tax credit, the custodial parent, meaning the parent the child lives with most of the time, is generally the one who claims it. If both parents agree, the custodial parent can sign IRS Form 8332 to release the claim to the non-custodial parent. For 2026, the maximum child tax credit is $2,200 per qualifying child. Because releasing the credit can meaningfully affect both parents’ taxes, it is worth running the numbers on both sides before deciding.

1
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 221C Section 3 – Court Interpreters for the Trial Court
2
Mass.gov. Trial Court Office of Language Access
3
Mass.gov. 2025 Child Support Guidelines Section II: Factors to Be Considered in Setting the Child Support Order
4
Mass.gov. Probate and Family Court 2025 Child Support Guidelines Worksheet CJD-304
5
Mass.gov. 2025 Child Support Guidelines Section IV: Deviation
6
Mass.gov. Learn About Establishing Parentage
7
Mass.gov. Learn the Benefits of Child Support Services and Enroll
8
Mass.gov. Child Support Intake Form and Application for Full Child Support Services
9
Mass.gov. Probate and Family Court Filing Fees
10
Mass.gov. Instructions for Filing an Answer to a Complaint CJD-905
11
Mass.gov. File the Short Financial Form
12
Mass.gov. Learn About Changing a Child Support Order
13
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Part I, Title XVII, Chapter 119A, Section 12
14
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Part I, Title XVII, Chapter 119A
15
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 666 – Requirement of Statutorily Prescribed Procedures to Improve Effectiveness of Child Support Enforcement
16
Mass.gov. Massachusetts Law About Child Support Over Age 18
17
Internal Revenue Service. Tax Information for Non-Custodial Parents