NC Child Support Worksheet B: Income, Calculation, and Filing

The NC child support Worksheet B is the form North Carolina uses to calculate support when parents share physical custody, meaning each parent has the child for at least 123 overnights per year.¹ The formula takes the basic support obligation from the state’s schedule, increases it by 50% to account for the cost of maintaining two households, adds work-related childcare and health insurance, then divides the total between parents based on their incomes and their share of overnights with the child. The official form is AOC-CV-628, and the Department of Health and Human Services publishes an online calculator that runs the Worksheet B math and populates the form for you.²

When Worksheet B Is the Right Form

North Carolina uses three worksheets, and picking the wrong one restarts the analysis. Worksheet A covers primary custody, where one parent has the child most of the year. Worksheet B covers shared custody. Worksheet C applies to split custody, where the children are divided so that each parent has primary custody of at least one child.³

Worksheet B is correct when the parents share custody of all the children in the case, or when one parent has primary custody of one child while the parents share custody of another.² The 123-overnight threshold works out to roughly one-third of the year. If neither parent hits 123 nights, shared custody does not apply and Worksheet A is used instead.¹ Judges look at the actual parenting schedule or the documented history of overnights to decide whether the minimum is met.

What You Need Before You Start

Every entry on Worksheet B ties back to a few underlying numbers for each parent. Have pay stubs, tax returns, insurance documentation, and childcare receipts on hand before you open the form.

Gross Monthly Income

The guidelines define income broadly. It includes wages, salaries, commissions, bonuses, self-employment earnings, business income, rental income, pensions, interest, trusts, annuities, capital gains, Social Security benefits, workers’ compensation, unemployment benefits, disability insurance, gifts, prizes, and alimony received from someone other than the other parent in the current case.⁴

Some categories are excluded. Means-tested public assistance such as TANF, SSI, and food assistance does not count. Neither do employer contributions to Social Security and Medicare, or employer-paid insurance premiums that are not deducted from your paycheck.⁴ A new spouse’s income is also excluded, whether or not that person lives with you or helps care for the child.

Self-employed parents figure income from business gross receipts minus legitimate business expenses. Courts scrutinize the deductions, so bring tax returns, profit-and-loss statements, and business bank records. Irregular or one-time income can be averaged over a period or ordered as a percentage of the nonrecurring amount.

VA benefits and Social Security payments received by the child because of a parent’s disability or retirement are counted as income to that parent. If those benefits go directly to the other parent for the child’s benefit, the paying parent can deduct that amount from the support obligation. If the child’s benefits exceed the calculated obligation, the court generally will not enter a separate order unless it decides to deviate.⁴

The Other Numbers

Beyond income, each parent has to supply:

Pre-existing child support paid under court orders for children from other relationships.
The number of biological or legally adopted children living in the home who the parent is responsible for supporting.
Work-related childcare costs, meaning out-of-pocket amounts that let the parent work or look for work.
The portion of the health insurance premium attributable to the child. If that share is not broken out, divide the total premium by the number of people covered and multiply by the number of children in the case.
The annual overnight count for each child, for each parent.

Health insurance is treated as “reasonable” only when the added cost of covering the child is no more than 5% of that parent’s gross income.⁵

How the Calculation Works

The math on Worksheet B is heavier than on Worksheet A because the child spends real time in two homes.

First, each parent’s gross monthly income is adjusted for pre-existing support obligations and other children the parent supports. The adjusted incomes are combined, and the court looks up the basic child support obligation on the state’s Schedule of Basic Support Obligations, which is a table keyed to combined income and number of children.⁶

Next comes the step that makes Worksheet B distinctive: the basic obligation is multiplied by 1.5. That 50% increase reflects the fact that two households cost more to maintain than one.⁷ Work-related childcare and the child’s share of health insurance premiums are added on top of the adjusted figure.

Each parent’s share of the total is calculated as a percentage of their contribution to combined income. The formula then factors in each parent’s percentage of overnights. The parent whose income share outruns their custodial time generally pays the difference to the other. The overnight adjustment is what prevents double-counting, giving each parent credit for the housing, food, and daily expenses they cover during their own parenting time.

Low-Income Floor

If the paying parent’s adjusted gross income falls below the federal poverty level for one person, the guidelines require a minimum order of $50 per month rather than the amount the schedule would otherwise produce. Just above the poverty line, the schedule has a built-in adjustment that protects the paying parent’s ability to meet basic living expenses.⁸

Extraordinary Expenses

Some costs sit outside the basic obligation and are handled as add-ons. The guidelines specifically list two: expenses for private or specialized schooling that meet a child’s particular educational needs, and the cost of transporting the child between the parents’ homes.⁹ Courts also have discretion to add other child-related expenses like therapy, specialized medical treatment, or competitive sports costs when the expense is reasonable, necessary, and in the child’s best interest.

Extraordinary expenses are split between parents in proportion to their incomes, not divided equally. One-time purchases like sports equipment or costs for routine leisure activities generally do not qualify. Document anything you want the court to include, and be ready to explain why it benefits the child.

When Income Can Be Imputed

A parent who deliberately works less or not at all to shrink a support obligation can have income imputed. North Carolina courts can base support on earning capacity rather than actual earnings, but only when two conditions are met: the parent is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed, and that status results from bad faith or a deliberate effort to minimize support.

In setting the imputed amount, the court considers employment potential, recent work history, occupational qualifications, and the local job market. A parent with no work history or vocational training will have at least minimum wage for a 40-hour week imputed. The court has to make specific findings supporting the decision.

Income cannot be imputed to a parent who is physically or mentally unable to work, or who is caring for a child under age three who is the subject of the support order.

When the Court Can Deviate

The guidelines amount is presumptive. The court has to use it unless there is a clear reason not to. A judge can deviate if the evidence shows the guidelines figure would not meet the child’s reasonable needs, would exceed those needs, or would otherwise be unjust, and the court must make written findings explaining both the departure and how it arrived at the alternative number.⁸

One recurring deviation scenario involves the federal dependency exemption. The guidelines assume the parent receiving support claims the child. When that parent has little or no tax liability, the court may require them to sign IRS Form 8332 releasing the exemption to the other parent and adjust the support amount to reflect the shifted tax benefit.

Filing the Worksheet

The completed worksheet is filed with the Clerk of Superior Court in the county where the child support case is pending. You can file in person or by certified mail. The other parent then has to be served with a copy through formal service of process, and the court incorporates the worksheet into the case file or attaches it to the support order.⁸

Filing fees vary depending on whether you are opening a new case or modifying an existing order. Contact the clerk’s office in your county for the current schedule. If you cannot afford the fee, you can file a petition to proceed as an indigent party, which waives the cost.

At the hearing, the judge reviews the worksheet to confirm it follows the guidelines. If the numbers hold up and neither parent contests the calculation, the judge signs off and the worksheet becomes part of a binding order. If a parent disputes the figures, most often the income amounts or the overnight count, the judge takes evidence before ruling.

1
North Carolina Judicial Branch. Worksheet B Child Support Obligation Joint or Shared Physical Custody (PDF)
2
North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. North Carolina Child Support Worksheet B (Joint or Shared Custody)
3
North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. North Carolina Child Support Worksheet C (Split Custody)
4
North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. North Carolina Child Support Guidelines – Section: Gross Income
5
North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. North Carolina Child Support Guidelines – Section: Health Insurance
6
North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. CSS Guidelines Table
7
North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. North Carolina Child Support Guidelines – Section: Shared Custody
8
North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. North Carolina Child Support Guidelines – Section: Applicability and Deviation
9
North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. North Carolina Child Support Guidelines – Section: Extraordinary Expenses