West Virginia Child Support Calculator: Inputs, Formula, and Adjustments

The West Virginia child support calculator applies the state’s Income Shares formula: it adds both parents’ gross incomes, looks up a base monthly obligation on a state table based on the combined income and number of children, splits that obligation between the parents in proportion to their incomes, and then layers on health insurance, work-related childcare, and adjustments for parenting time. The resulting number carries a legal presumption that it is the correct amount of support.¹

What You Need Before You Run the Numbers

To get a realistic estimate, you need four things: each parent’s monthly gross income, the number of children covered by the order, the cost of health insurance for the child and any work-related childcare, and the number of overnights per year the child spends with each parent. The parenting time count determines which worksheet applies, and the worksheet determines the math.

Worksheet A is used when one parent has the child most of the year. Worksheet B, called extended shared parenting, is used when each parent has the child for more than 127 days per year.² The cutoff is roughly 35 percent of the year, and whether your schedule falls above or below it changes the calculation significantly.

How the Formula Turns Inputs Into a Dollar Amount

The state publishes a table of basic monthly child support obligations keyed to combined adjusted gross income and the number of children. The court adds both parents’ adjusted gross incomes, finds the matching row in the table, and reads off the base obligation.³ That number represents what two parents at that income level would typically spend on their children if they lived together.

Each parent is then assigned a percentage share of the obligation based on their share of the combined income. A parent who earns 60 percent of the combined income is responsible for 60 percent of the base obligation. In a basic Worksheet A case, the noncustodial parent pays their share to the custodial parent, who is presumed to spend their own share directly on the child.

The table covers combined adjusted gross incomes up to $35,000 per month. Above that ceiling, the obligation cannot drop below the $35,000 figure, and the court has discretion to set a higher amount based on the circumstances.⁴

Once the base figure is set, the court adds each parent’s share of health insurance premiums for the child, work-related childcare, and any extraordinary expenses before producing the final amount.⁵

What Counts as Income

Gross income in West Virginia is defined broadly. It includes wages, salaries, commissions, bonuses, tips, pensions, annuities, Social Security benefits, unemployment compensation, workers’ compensation, interest, dividends, royalties, rental income, and trust income, among other sources.⁶ The underlying test is whether the money would have been available to support the child if the household had stayed intact.

A short list of items is excluded. Means-tested benefits like Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and food assistance do not count.⁶ Social Security Disability Insurance is included because it is not means-tested. If a child receives SSI, there is a separate protection: if counting a parent’s support payment as unearned income to the child would knock the child off SSI or Medicaid, the court sets that child’s support at zero and leaves the child out of the calculation.⁷

Self-Employment Income

For a self-employed parent, gross income means business revenue minus ordinary and necessary expenses that are lawfully deductible under tax law, plus the excess FICA and Medicare contributions self-employment carries. The court averages income over the previous 36 months, or over the full period of self-employment if that is shorter.⁶ Judges read profit-and-loss statements and tax filings closely. Inflated deductions and personal expenses charged to the business are the most common ways self-employed parents try to show less income, and courts expect to see them.

Imputed Income

A parent cannot cut their support obligation by quitting work or taking a job well below their earning capacity. If the court finds a parent is voluntarily unemployed, underemployed, or working below full capacity, it can attribute income based on the parent’s assets, work history, education, job skills, health, criminal record, and the local job market.⁸

Where the court lacks enough information to estimate earning capacity, it can impute full-time work at the federal minimum wage as a floor. The court does not have to find that the parent quit specifically to avoid support. Leaving a job or cutting hours for any reason can trigger imputed income.⁸

Military Pay and Allowances

For a military parent, base pay is clearly income. Non-taxable allowances like Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) and Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS) are generally counted as well, because they reflect the service member’s actual financial resources. A service member who lives in on-base housing and receives no BAH in cash may have no cash allowance to count, though some courts impute a fair market value for the housing itself.

How Parenting Time Changes the Math

The 127-day threshold is the single biggest swing variable in the calculator. Below it, Worksheet A applies and the noncustodial parent pays their percentage share of the base obligation plus add-ons.

At or above 127 days each, Worksheet B applies and the formula changes. The base obligation is multiplied by 1.6 to produce a shared parenting obligation, which reflects the added cost of maintaining two households for the child. Each parent’s income-based share of that larger obligation is then multiplied by the percentage of time the child spends with the other parent. The two figures are offset, and the parent with the larger figure pays the difference.⁹ Health insurance, childcare, and other direct expenses are handled through a similar offset.

Because of the 1.6 multiplier and the offset structure, the difference between 126 and 128 overnights can produce a noticeably different support number. If you are negotiating a parenting schedule, run the calculation on both sides of the threshold before agreeing to overnights.

Add-Ons: Health Insurance, Childcare, and Extraordinary Expenses

The table amount covers everyday costs like food, clothing, and shelter. Several other costs are added on top and divided between the parents by income share.

If either parent has appropriate health insurance available for the child, typically through work, the court orders that parent to enroll the child and factors the premium into the worksheet.¹⁰ Unreimbursed medical expenses like co-pays, deductibles, and anything insurance does not cover are split by the same income shares.⁵

Childcare costs incurred because a parent is working, training for work, or in school leading to employment are added to the base obligation. The statute first reduces those costs by 25 percent to account for the federal child care tax credit the custodial parent can claim. That reduction does not apply when the custodial parent’s monthly gross income falls below set thresholds that range from $1,150 for one child to $2,350 for six or more children.¹¹ After the adjustment, the net childcare cost is split by income share.

Beyond medical and childcare, the court can add extraordinary expenses the parents agree on or the court finds necessary.⁵ Items like private school tuition are not automatically built into the formula; they typically come in through the deviation process.

When the Court Can Depart From the Calculated Amount

The guideline number is presumed correct, but a court can deviate when the formula produces an inappropriate result. If it does, the court must state the reason and put the calculated amount on the record.¹² The statute lists eight factors the guidelines do not account for that may justify a deviation:

A child with a physical or mental disability, or a parent with special needs affecting ability to pay.
Educational expenses such as private school, parochial school, trade school, or post-secondary costs beyond what public taxes cover.
Families with more than six children, which exceed the table’s coverage.
Long-distance visitation travel costs when the parents live far apart.
Situations where the child lives with a third party rather than either parent.
A parent’s duty to support other children.
Income that is nonrecurring or depends heavily on irregular, nonguaranteed sources.
Whether the combined burden of spousal support, child support, and childcare would push either parent’s household below the federal poverty level.

The poverty-level factor runs both directions. A court will look at whether support leaves the paying parent below the poverty line, and it will also refuse a deviation that would push the receiving household below that line.¹²

Changing the Number After the Order Is Entered

Support orders are not permanent. Either parent can ask the Bureau for Child Support Enforcement to review the order, and the rules depend on how long it has been since the order was entered or last reviewed.

Once 36 months have passed, the BCSE will compare the existing amount to what the current guidelines would produce. If the two differ by 10 percent or more, the agency files a motion to modify. The BCSE can also seek modification for a smaller difference if doing so is in the child’s best interest.¹³

Before 36 months are up, the moving parent must show a substantial change in circumstances. That includes changed financial conditions like job loss, a new job, going on public assistance, or receiving unemployment compensation; a change in physical custody the court has not yet addressed; or increased needs of the child. A 15 percent or greater gap between the existing order and the current guidelines amount also counts as a changed financial condition.¹³

One point worth stressing: the original order stays in force until the court actually enters a new one. Losing a job does not reduce what you owe on its own. Arrears accumulate at the old amount until a modification is filed and granted, so file quickly if your income has dropped.

1
West Virginia Legislature. West Virginia Code 48-13-101 – Guidelines to Ensure Uniformity and Increase Predictability; Presumption of Correctness
2
West Virginia Legislature. West Virginia Code 48-13-204
3
Bureau for Child Support Enforcement. Income Shares Support Formula
4
West Virginia Legislature. West Virginia Code 48-13-303 – Incomes Above the Table for Determining Basic Child Support Obligations
5
West Virginia Legislature. West Virginia Code 48-13-202
6
West Virginia Legislature. West Virginia Code 48-1-228 – Gross Income Defined
7
West Virginia Legislature. West Virginia Code 48-13-603
8
West Virginia Legislature. West Virginia Code 48-1-205 – Attributed Income Defined
9
West Virginia Legislature. West Virginia Code 48-13-501 – Extended Shared Parenting Adjustment
10
West Virginia Legislature. West Virginia Code 48-12-102 – Court-Ordered Medical Support
11
West Virginia Legislature. West Virginia Code 48-13-601 – Adjustment for Child Care Tax Credit
12
West Virginia Legislature. West Virginia Code 48-13-702 – Disregard of Formula
13
West Virginia Legislature. West Virginia Code 48-18-126