How to Fill Out the Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines Worksheet

The Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines Worksheet, officially form CJD 304, is the standard Probate and Family Court form both parents complete in any case involving children to produce a presumptive weekly child support amount. The current version took effect on December 1, 2025, replacing the 2021 worksheet, and you can download the PDF from the Mass.gov child support guidelines page or pick up a paper copy at any Probate and Family Court clerk’s office.¹ The number the worksheet produces is the figure a judge will typically adopt unless specific circumstances justify deviating.

What to Gather Before You Open the Form

Every dollar on CJD 304 is a weekly figure, and the inputs come from both parents. Pull together recent pay stubs, two years of tax returns, a current profit-and-loss statement if you’re self-employed, insurance enrollment summaries showing what you pay in premiums, childcare invoices, and any court orders requiring you to pay support in a different case.

The 2025 Guidelines define income broadly. Gross income from any source counts, whether or not it appears on your tax return: wages, salaries, overtime, tips, commissions, bonuses, interest, dividends, rental income, pension distributions, workers’ compensation, unemployment benefits, capital gains that represent a regular income source, lottery winnings, and stock option income, among others.² If money comes in on a recurring basis, assume it counts.

A few categories are excluded. Needs-based public assistance (TAFDC, SNAP, and SSI) does not count as income for the parent receiving those benefits.² Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) does count, because it replaces lost earnings rather than meeting basic need. If a parent receives SSDI and the children receive a dependency benefit on that parent’s record, the dependency benefit is added to that parent’s gross income for the calculation.

Self-employed parents report gross receipts minus the ordinary and necessary expenses required to produce that income. The guidelines caution that this number will often differ from the taxable business income reported on a tax return, because the child support figure strips out deductions that reduce taxes but don’t reflect real spending needed to earn the money.²

To convert pay to a weekly figure, divide a monthly salary by 4.3, divide a biweekly paycheck by 2, and average irregular income (bonuses, dividends) across the prior year.³

Filling Out Section 1: Children and Custody

Line 1a asks for the number of children covered by the order. Line 1b is where the custody arrangement gets recorded, and the box you check changes how later sections calculate. The three options:³

Box 1, shared custody: children live with both parents roughly equal amounts of time and both share financial responsibility.
Box 2, primary custody: children live with one parent at least two-thirds of the time.
Box 3, split custody: more than one child is covered and the children do not all live with the same parent.

If you check Box 2, the parent the children live with primarily goes in the Parent A column. For Boxes 1 and 3, it doesn’t matter which parent occupies which column. Line 1d records how many children reside with each parent based on the box you selected.

Filling Out Section 2: Income and Deductions

Each parent has their own column. The lines move from gross income down through the allowable deductions.

Line 2a: each parent’s total gross weekly income.
Lines 2b and 2c: Social Security dependency benefits. Line 2b is the total; Line 2c is the portion sent directly to each parent.
Line 2d: existing court-ordered or voluntary support each parent pays for a child, spouse, or former spouse in a different case. Payments on arrears don’t qualify for this deduction.⁴
Line 2e: the weekly cost each parent actually pays for individual or family health care coverage. If part of the premium covers someone outside this case and the court finds the extra cost would unreasonably reduce child support, that portion may not be deducted.⁴
Line 2f: weekly dental and vision insurance premiums for the children.
Line 2g: work-related childcare each parent actually pays, up to $430 per week per child covered by the order. Training or education reasonably necessary to find or keep employment can also count here.⁴

Filling Out Section 3: The Support Calculation

Section 3 combines both parents’ available income and runs the formula. Line 3a takes each parent’s gross income, adds the dependency benefit amounts, and subtracts the deductions from Lines 2d through 2f. If the result is below zero, enter zero. Line 3b adds both parents’ Line 3a figures together. Line 3c converts each parent’s share into a percentage of that combined total.

Line 3d caps the combined available income at $7,692 per week. If the Line 3b figure exceeds that cap, enter $7,692 instead. The worksheet’s accompanying Table A gives the base support amount for one child, and Table B supplies an adjustment factor for additional children. The remaining lines in Section 3 multiply and allocate these figures according to each parent’s income share and the custody box checked in Section 1.

How the Custody Box Changes the Math

Primary custody (Box 2) is the straightforward scenario. The noncustodial parent in the Parent B column pays the custodial parent the amount the formula produces.

Shared physical custody (Box 1) effectively runs the calculation twice, once as if each parent were the primary custodian, and the presumptive order is the difference between those two amounts, paid by the parent with the higher figure to the other.⁵ The design keeps the children’s standard of living similar in both households.

Split custody (Box 3) applies when more than one child is covered and the children don’t all live with the same parent. The worksheet calculates a separate support amount for each household and nets them against each other, with the parent who owes the larger amount paying the difference.

Where to File the Completed Worksheet

CJD 304 must be filed in every case involving children, at the Probate and Family Court handling your case.¹ It typically accompanies one of:

A Complaint for Divorce or Joint Petition when children are involved.
A Complaint for Modification (CJD 104) when one parent seeks to change an existing order due to a material change in circumstances.⁶
A Joint Petition to Change (CJD 124) when both parents agree to modify an existing order.⁶

You will also need to file a Financial Statement. Massachusetts requires the short form (CJD 301S) if your annual income is under $75,000 and the long form (CJD 301L) if it is $75,000 or more.⁷ Cases involving custody also require a Child Care or Custody Disclosure Affidavit.⁶ File the originals with the court clerk and deliver copies to the other parent.

Skipping the worksheet can stall your case. Without it, the judge lacks the standardized calculation needed to issue a support order and may enter only a temporary order based on limited information, which could be less favorable than what a completed worksheet would produce.

When a Judge May Set a Different Amount

The number from the worksheet is presumptive, not automatic. The 2025 Guidelines list circumstances that justify setting a higher or lower amount, or even $0. Common grounds include:⁸

Both parents agree and the court finds the agreement fair and reasonable.
The child has ongoing extraordinary mental, physical, or developmental needs with financial consequences.
A parent’s health care coverage expenses are unusually high.
One parent provides substantially less than one-third, or substantially more than one-third but less than half, of the parenting time.
The paying parent is incarcerated and has insufficient resources.
Applying the guidelines would leave a parent unable to meet basic living expenses.
One household would be left with a grossly disparate standard of living compared to the other.

One trigger operates automatically. Whenever the formula requires the paying parent to hand over 40 percent or more of their available income for a current child support order, a rebuttable presumption of substantial hardship applies, and the judge must consider whether deviation is warranted.⁸ If you think your situation fits any of these grounds, fill out the worksheet accurately anyway and raise the deviation argument separately at the hearing; the court needs the presumptive calculation on record before it can decide to depart from it.

1
Mass.gov. Probate and Family Court 2025 Child Support Guidelines Worksheet (CJD 304)
2
Mass.gov. 2025 Child Support Guidelines Section I: Income Definition
3
Mass Legal Help. How to Fill Out the Child Support Guidelines Worksheet
4
Mass.gov. 2025 Child Support Guidelines Section II: Factors To Be Considered in Setting the Child Support Order
5
Massachusetts Government. Child Support Guidelines
6
Mass.gov. Probate and Family Court Forms for Modifications
7
Mass.gov. Probate and Family Court Financial Statement (Short Form) (CJD 301S)
8
Mass.gov. 2025 Child Support Guidelines Section IV: Deviation