Child Support in Texas: How It’s Calculated, Paid, and Enforced

Child support in Texas is calculated as a set percentage of the paying parent’s net resources, ordered through the Office of the Attorney General or a court, collected through the state’s disbursement unit, and enforced with tools that include wage withholding, license suspension, and federal tax refund intercepts. Both parents owe a legal duty of support regardless of whether they were ever married, and the obligation belongs to the child.

How Much You Pay or Receive

Texas runs support off “net resources,” which is the paying parent’s income after a specific set of deductions. Net resources include wages, salary, overtime, commissions, tips, bonuses, interest, dividends, self-employment income, retirement benefits, and most other income actually received.¹ Public assistance benefits, foster care payments, and returns of principal or capital are excluded.

To get to net resources, the court subtracts Social Security taxes, federal income tax (calculated as a single filer claiming one exemption and the standard deduction), union dues, and the cost of any court-ordered health or dental insurance for the child.¹ If a parent doesn’t pay Social Security taxes, mandatory retirement contributions come out instead.

The court then applies a guideline percentage based on how many children the order covers:²

One child: 20% of net resources
Two children: 25%
Three children: 30%
Four children: 35%
Five or more children: at least 40%

The guideline applies to the first $11,700 per month in net resources, a cap that is adjusted every six years for inflation and was most recently raised from $9,200.³² Above the cap, a judge can order more if the child’s proven needs justify it. The guideline percentage is presumed to be in the child’s best interest, so convincing a judge to deviate takes specific evidence.

Low-Income and No-Income Situations

If the paying parent earns less than $1,000 per month in net resources, Texas uses reduced percentages so support doesn’t push the parent below a survivable income:⁴

One child: 12.5%
Two children: 17.5%
Three children: 20%
Four children: 22.5%
Five or more children: at least 25%

When a parent produces no evidence of income, the court presumes earnings of at least federal minimum wage for a 40-hour workweek.⁴ If the judge finds a parent is deliberately underemployed or refusing to work, support can be calculated from earning potential instead of actual pay, using prior job history, education, and local prevailing wages.

Medical and Dental Coverage Are Part of Every Order

Cash support is only part of what the order covers. Every Texas child support order must also address health and dental insurance for the child.⁴ Employer coverage is preferred when available at reasonable cost, and a premium is presumed reasonable if it doesn’t exceed 9% of the paying parent’s annual resources.

If the paying parent has access to affordable employer insurance, the court orders them to enroll the child. If they don’t, the other parent can be ordered to carry coverage. Because the premium cost is deducted from net resources before the percentage is applied, insurance reduces the monthly cash obligation rather than stacking on top of it.

Getting an Order

Paternity Comes First for Unmarried Parents

Texas presumes a woman’s husband is the legal father. When the parents were never married, paternity has to be established before a court can order support. The usual routes are a voluntary Acknowledgment of Paternity signed by both parents, often at the hospital at the time of birth, or a court order after genetic testing if either side disputes it.⁵ A filed acknowledgment carries the same legal weight as a court order. Without established paternity, there is no legal basis for an order against an unmarried father.

Applying Through the Attorney General

The fastest way to open a case is the Office of the Attorney General’s online portal; a paper application can also be requested by calling (800) 252-8014, though it takes longer.⁶ You’ll need full legal names, Social Security numbers, and dates of birth for both parents and the children, along with the other parent’s address and employer so the state can serve notice and locate income for withholding. Pay stubs and tax returns help the state assess each parent’s earning capacity.

The Child Support Review Process

Most cases start with the Child Support Review Process, an administrative meeting rather than a courtroom hearing.⁷ Both parents meet with a child support officer and try to agree on the terms. If they do, the officer drafts an order for a judge to sign. If they don’t, the case goes to a formal court hearing. The other parent must be formally served either way. Until a judge signs the final order, no enforceable obligation exists.

How Payments Move

All Texas child support flows through the State Disbursement Unit, which creates an official record of every transaction.⁸ Most orders include an income withholding order so the employer deducts support directly from each paycheck and remits it to the state.⁹ The receiving parent gets funds by direct deposit or on the Texas Payment Card. Paying parents can also pay through the OAG’s online portal.

Paying outside those official channels is risky. Cash handed to the other parent, or deposits into their personal account, may not count as credited payments if a dispute ever reaches a courtroom. The state’s records are what carry weight in enforcement.

When Child Support Ends

The duty to pay runs until the child turns 18 or graduates high school, whichever is later.⁴ A child still in high school at 18 keeps receiving support through graduation. Support also ends early if the child marries, has disabilities of minority removed, or is otherwise emancipated.

Disability is the major exception. If a child has a mental or physical disability that existed on or before the 18th birthday, requires substantial care, and offers no realistic path to self-support, the court can order support indefinitely.⁴ And when regular support ends, any back payments that have accrued stay collectible.

Changing the Amount Later

Texas allows modification when circumstances shift enough to justify it. The standard route requires a material and substantial change since the last order, such as a significant income change, a change in the child’s needs, or a change in custody.¹⁰

There is also an automatic review path. If three years have passed since the order was set or last modified, and the recalculated amount would differ from the current one by at least 20% or $100 per month, that alone qualifies.¹¹ You don’t have to point to any specific life event.

Incarceration for more than 180 days counts as a material and substantial change, and so does release when support was reduced or suspended during the sentence.¹⁰ A modification only changes future payments from the date the other parent is served with the petition. Informal agreements between parents carry no legal weight. Until a judge signs the new order, the original amount is still owed.

Past-Due Support Cannot Be Forgiven

Federal law bars any state from retroactively reducing child support that has already come due. Under the Bradley Amendment, each missed payment becomes a judgment by operation of law the moment it is due, with the force of any other court judgment.¹² No court can go back and erase that debt, even if the paying parent lost a job or became disabled during that period. The only narrow exception is that a modification can reach back to the date the petition was filed and served, not earlier. That is why filing quickly after a financial setback matters so much.

What Happens If a Parent Doesn’t Pay

Texas has some of the most aggressive enforcement tools in the country, and the consequences escalate fast.

Once a parent is at least three months behind and hasn’t followed a repayment plan, the court or the Attorney General can suspend driver’s licenses, professional licenses, and other state-issued licenses.¹³ The suspension stays in place until the parent pays the arrears or gets a court-approved repayment agreement.

For more serious noncompliance, the court can hold the parent in contempt, which carries possible jail time. A judge can also place a delinquent parent on community supervision for up to 10 years with conditions like employment services, financial counseling, or substance abuse treatment. The state can place liens on property, bank accounts, and retirement plans.

Federal Enforcement and Tax Refund Intercepts

When a parent crosses state lines or owes large amounts, federal law takes over. Under 18 U.S.C. § 228, willfully failing to pay support for a child in another state is a federal crime once the debt exceeds $5,000 or has gone unpaid for more than a year, with higher penalties above $10,000 or two years unpaid.¹⁴ A federal conviction requires full restitution of unpaid support.

The Treasury Offset Program lets the federal government intercept tax refunds. State child support agencies submit the names and Social Security numbers of qualifying delinquent parents, and the Treasury diverts part or all of the federal refund to cover the debt.¹⁵ The parent receives a pre-offset notice explaining the amount and how to challenge it. If the refund came from a joint return, the state may hold the funds for up to six months before paying them out. The OAG can also request passport denial for parents with significant arrears and report unpaid support to credit bureaus.

Visitation and Support Are Separate

This is where parents make a costly mistake. In Texas, support and visitation are legally independent. A custodial parent cannot withhold visitation because payments stopped, and a noncustodial parent cannot stop paying because visits are being blocked.¹⁶ Both parents have to follow the order regardless of what the other is doing.

If either side violates the order, the remedy is to go back to court for enforcement. A parent who takes matters into their own hands risks contempt, license suspension, and the other tools above, and almost always loses standing in front of the judge.

Taxes on Child Support

Child support has no federal income tax consequence for either parent. The paying parent cannot deduct it, and the receiving parent does not report it as income.¹⁷ Who claims the child as a dependent is a separate question — generally the parent the child lives with for more than half the year — and the child support order itself does not decide it.

1
State of Texas. Texas Family Code Section 154.062 – Net Resources
2
State of Texas. Texas Family Code Section 154.125 – Application of Guidelines to Net Resources
3
Office of the Attorney General. Monthly Child Support Calculator
4
State of Texas. Texas Family Code Chapter 154 – Child Support
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State of Texas. Texas Family Code FAM 160.301
6
Office of the Attorney General. How to Apply for Child Support
7
Office of the Attorney General. Understanding the Legal Process
8
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Revenue Object 3620 – Child Support Collections
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Texas Public Law. Texas Family Code Section 158.203 – Remitting Withheld Payments
10
State of Texas. Texas Family Code Section 156.401 – Grounds for Modification of Child Support
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Office of the Attorney General. Support Modification Process
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 666 – Requirement of Statutorily Prescribed Procedures
13
State of Texas. Texas Family Code Section 232.003 – Suspension of License
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 228 – Failure to Pay Legal Child Support Obligations
15
Administration for Children and Families. How Does a Federal Tax Refund Offset Work?
16
Office of the Attorney General. Handbook for Noncustodial Parents
17
Internal Revenue Service. Dependents