2027 NC Child Support: Five Worked Examples

2027 Child Support Guidelines · Examples

Five hypothetical families run through North Carolina’s 2027 Child Support Guidelines, showing how income, overnights, and expenses move the number. Every figure below comes from our 2027 calculator.

These are illustrations with invented numbers, not predictions for any real case. Courts decide income, eligible expenses, and deviations on the evidence.

Example 1: Primary custody (Worksheet A)

One child lives with Mom. Dad has the child 73 nights a year. Dad earns $5,500 a month gross; Mom earns $3,500. Mom pays $400 a month in work-related child care, and Dad pays $120 a month for the child’s share of health insurance.

Step	Amount
Combined adjusted income	$9,000
Income shares	Dad 61.11% · Mom 38.89%
Basic schedule amount, 1 child at $9,000	$1,317.00
Add child care ($400) and insurance ($120)	$1,837.00 total obligation
Dad’s 61.11% share	$1,122.61
Less insurance Dad already pays	− $120.00
Estimated support, Dad to Mom	$1,002.61 / month

Example 2: Shared custody (Worksheet B)

Two children, each with Dad 182 nights and Mom 183 nights. Dad earns $7,000; Mom earns $4,500. Dad pays $200 a month for the children’s health insurance. Because each parent has at least 123 overnights and shares expenses, Worksheet B applies, and the basic obligation is multiplied by 1.5 to reflect the cost of two households.

Step	Amount
Basic schedule amount, 2 children at $11,500	$2,203.00
Shared obligation (× 1.5)	$3,304.50
Income shares	Dad 60.87% · Mom 39.13%
Parenting time	Dad 49.86% · Mom 50.14%
Dad’s obligation for Mom’s time	$1,008.47
Mom’s obligation for Dad’s time	$644.76
Credit for insurance Dad pays above his fair share	− $78.26 from Dad
Net estimate, Dad to Mom	$285.45 / month

Notice how much smaller the transfer is than in Example 1. With nearly equal time, each parent’s obligation offsets the other’s.

Example 3: Low income and the self-support reserve

One child lives primarily with Mom; Dad has 60 nights. Dad earns $1,900 a month and Mom earns $2,500. Dad’s income falls in the shaded low-income area of the 2027 schedule, which protects a paying parent’s ability to meet basic needs. In this situation, the schedule amount is based only on the paying parent’s income, and child care, insurance, and extraordinary expenses are not added or credited.

Step	Amount
Combined income (for reference)	$4,400
Rule applied	Worksheet A self-support reserve
Estimated support, Dad to Mom	$301.00 / month

Example 4: High income, still on the schedule

One child lives with Mom; Dad has 80 nights. Dad earns $32,000 a month and Mom earns $12,000. Combined income of $44,000 is under the new $50,000 ceiling, so the schedule applies.

Step	Amount
Basic schedule amount, 1 child at $44,000	$3,642.00
Dad’s income share	72.73%
Estimated support, Dad to Mom	$2,648.73 / month

Example 5: Above the $50,000 ceiling

Same facts, but Dad earns $45,000 a month, for $57,000 combined. The 2027 schedule stops at $50,000 in combined adjusted monthly income. Above that, there is no presumptive schedule amount. The court sets support based on the child’s reasonable needs and the parents’ circumstances and abilities, with findings. Our calculator deliberately does not extrapolate past the ceiling. These cases depend on evidence of actual expenses, lifestyle, and income.

What these examples leave out

• Income disputes. Self-employment, bonuses, and imputed income often drive the result more than the math does.
• Other children. Support paid for other children and natural or adopted children living in a parent’s home can reduce adjusted income.
• Social Security or VA benefits paid for the child because of a parent’s earnings record.
• Deviation. A judge may depart from the guidelines with findings that the guideline amount would not meet or would exceed the child’s reasonable needs, or would otherwise be unjust or inappropriate.

Related reading

• Do the 2027 guidelines change my existing order?
• Calculator methodology and validation
• Child support help from Adkins Law

Hypothetical examples for education only, calculated with the Adkins Law 2027 beta calculator under AOC-A-162 (Rev. 1/27). Not legal advice and not a prediction of any court’s order. Reviewed November 2026.