Family Law Blog

One of the new changes to the Texas Family Code in 2021 is that now there is a new "low-income child support guidelines" in Section 154.125. This new section only applies to lawsuits filed after September 1, 2021. The person paying child support must be earning less than $1,000 in order for the court to "presumptively apply" the new figures.

So what are the new figures? Here is a comparison of normal vs. the new low-income numbers:

As you can see, all of the numbers reduce by 5% when a wage earner is "low income". Keep in mind that the low-income threshold of $1,000 is for "net resources", which is ...

In Texas, one parent typically is the “primary” caregiver, and the other parent is the secondary, or non-possessory parent. This is true even though both parents usually have the title of “joint managing conservator”. The non-possessory parent is usually obligated to pay child support to the primary caregiver.

Texas Law provides for a standard, “guideline”, amount of child support. The guideline amount of child support depends upon the number of children and the amount of income that the non-possessory parent has. The guideline amount is 20% for 1 child, 25% for 2 ...