How Virginia calculates child support
Virginia uses the income shares model. The Code of Virginia §20-108.2 contains the whole schedule, so the basic amount comes straight from a table in the statute. The schedule used here was set by the 2025 General Assembly and took effect on July 1, 2025. The guideline amount is presumed correct, and a court that departs from it must say why in writing (§20-108.1).
Add the parents' gross incomes
Virginia works from monthly gross income from all sources: wages, commissions, bonuses, dividends, interest, pensions, Social Security, disability and unemployment benefits, rental income and spousal support received (§20-108.2(C)). Self-employed parents use gross receipts minus reasonable business expenses, less half of the self-employment tax. Public assistance, SSI and child support received do not count. The statute then adjusts gross income: spousal support paid under an order or written agreement is deducted, and half of any self-employment tax is deducted. Two more deductions are presumed. A parent who pays support for other children under an existing order or written agreement deducts the amount actually paid. A parent with other natural or adopted children living in his or her home or primary custody deducts the schedule amount for those children based on that parent's income alone. Being presumptions, these can be rebutted, and neither may reduce support so far that the custodial parent cannot keep minimal adequate housing and provide basic necessities for the child. The calculator asks for income after these adjustments.
Find the basic obligation
The statute lists a basic obligation for each combined income from $400 to $42,500 a month, in $50 steps, for one to six children, plus a first row for incomes up to $350. For incomes between rows, the statute says the amount is "extrapolated." The calculator draws a straight line between the neighboring rows. Above $42,500 it adds a percentage of the extra income to the top row: 2.6%, 3.4%, 3.8%, 4.2%, 4.6%, 5% for one to six children.
Add health coverage and child care
The monthly cost of the children's health, dental and vision coverage, paid by either parent or by a parent's spouse, is added to the basic obligation, and so is the custodial parent's work-related child care (§20-108.2(E) and (F)). Only the cost for the children in the case counts. If the insurer gives a cost per child, that is the figure. Otherwise, take the total cost of the coverage, subtract the cost of individual coverage for the policyholder, and divide what is left by the number of other people covered; multiply that per-person cost by the number of children in the case. Child care counts only up to what quality care from a licensed source costs, and the court can consider whether the other parent is willing and available to provide the care personally. If either party asks and shows the tax savings a parent gets from child care deductions or credits, the court factors those actual tax consequences into the child care cost (§20-108.2(F)). The calculator takes the child care figure as entered, so enter the amount after any such savings. The total is divided by the parents' shares of combined gross income, and the paying parent gets credit for coverage he or she, or his or her spouse, already pays. Unreimbursed medical and dental costs are not in the monthly number. They are shared in the same proportion as they come up (§20-108.2(D)).
Shared custody
When the parent with fewer days has the children more than 90 days a year, a different method applies (§20-108.2(G)(3)). It is the parent with less time who has to pass 90 days, not the parent the children live with most. The schedule amount is multiplied by 1.4 to get the "shared support need." Each parent's obligation is that need times the other parent's share of days, plus the other household's coverage and child care, multiplied by this parent's income share. The two obligations are subtracted, and the parent with the larger one pays the difference. The statute calls this the presumptive amount. The lower sole custody amount is used only if a party affirmatively shows that it is lower, so the calculator shows both and gives the shared amount unless you choose that option. When the shared result would be paid to the parent who would pay under sole custody, the statute treats the shared amount as the lesser one.
A day is a period of 24 hours. When the parent with fewer overnights has the child overnight but for less than 24 hours, the statute presumes half a day for each parent (§20-108.2(G)(3)(c)), and the calculator has a field for those overnights. It counts a 365-day year; the statute leaves the start of the year and of the day to the court.
The shared custody amount is also not presumed correct when either parent's gross income is at or below 150% of the federal poverty level. The court may then consider whether the sole or the shared amount is more just and appropriate (§20-108.2(G)(3)(d)), so the calculator shows both and no single figure. The statute does not say which household size to use: at or below 150% of the one-person guideline the exception clearly applies, and up to 150% of the figure for a household of the parent and the children the calculator flags that it may apply.
Low income
Virginia has no self-support reserve table. Instead, the first rows of the schedule already reflect low incomes, and the statute sets a presumptive monthly minimum. A court can go below that minimum when the paying parent's gross income is at or below 150% of the federal poverty level and there is no ability to pay, and certain parents are exempt (§20-108.2(B)). The current Code text does not give the minimum as a dollar figure, so the calculator cannot apply it. Very low results are flagged as possibly below the minimum, and in that case the figure shown may not be the presumptive amount.
What the calculator leaves out
It does not handle split custody (each parent has at least one child), children in other households, income imputed to a parent who is voluntarily unemployed (§20-108.1(B)), or more than six children, which the schedule does not cover. Courts may also depart from the guideline based on the factors in §20-108.1(B), such as special needs, extraordinary expenses or the cost of travel for visitation.