Tennessee uses an income shares formula

Tennessee’s Child Support Guidelines are an administrative rule rather than a statute, found at Tennessee Comp. R. & Regs. Chapter 1240-02-04. The current version took effect October 1, 2021.

The model is called income shares, and it works on the premise that a child should receive roughly the same proportion of parental income they would have received if the parents lived together. The calculation runs in order:

• Both parents’ gross monthly incomes are added together
• That combined figure is used to look up the basic child support obligation on the state’s Child Support Schedule
• The obligation is divided between the parents in proportion to each one’s share of the combined income
• Health insurance premiums for the child, work-related childcare, and recurring uninsured medical expenses are added and divided the same way
• The result is adjusted for parenting time, producing the final order

Both parents’ incomes matter, in other words. A parent who receives support is not outside the calculation.

Military pay: what counts, and what surprises people

This is the question we answer most often, and the rule is explicit. Under Tennessee Comp. R. & Regs. 1240-02-04-.04(3)(a)4(iii), Basic Allowance for Housing, Basic Allowance for Subsistence, and Variable Housing Allowance are considered income for the purposes of determining child support.

That holds even though BAH and BAS are not taxable and even though they never feel like take-home pay. A soldier whose LES shows a base pay figure will often see a support calculation built on a number several hundred dollars a month higher, and the explanation is that the allowances are in it.

• Base pay, bonuses, and special pays fall under the general rule that gross income includes all income from any source. Variable components such as bonuses and overtime are averaged over a reasonable period rather than counted at their peak
• VA disability and VA retirement benefits are included as gross income
• Benefits drawn for the child on a parent’s account, such as VA benefits or Social Security Title II, count as income to the parent on whose account they are drawn
• Means-tested public assistance, including TANF, SNAP, and SSI, is excluded, as is child support received for children of another relationship and the child’s own income

One caution we give every service member: each branch has its own internal interim support regulations, and those command-level rules use different income definitions than Tennessee’s, in some cases basic pay only. A branch obligation is an administrative matter between you and your command. It is not a substitute for a Tennessee court order, and complying with one does not satisfy the other. Bring us both.

The formula assumes eighty days a year

Here is the number almost no client expects. The Guidelines assume the child lives primarily with one parent and spends eighty days a year with the other, meaning alternating weekends, two weeks in summer, and two weeks of holidays. That assumption is already built into the Schedule.

So the parenting time adjustment is not a reward for being involved. It is a correction applied when your actual time differs from eighty days.

Equal parenting time does not mean no support. Where time is equal, no primary residential parent designation is made on the basis of time, and for calculation purposes the father is treated as the paying parent. Support still flows, because the formula is driven by the difference in the parents’ incomes, not only by the division of time. One further wrinkle: where the self-support reserve applies, protecting a low-income parent’s basic subsistence, the paying parent does not receive the parenting time credit at all.

When a parent is not working, or will not disclose

These are two different situations and the Guidelines treat them differently. Clients, and a fair amount of material published online, run them together.

• Willful underemployment or unemployment. The Guidelines state plainly that they do not presume any parent is willfully underemployed or unemployed. A parent asserting it has to prove it. Once a court does find it, income may be allocated to reflect earning capacity based on the parent’s past and present employment, education, and training. The 2020 revision changed the standard from voluntarily to willfully, which raised the bar.
• Incarceration is not willful underemployment for purposes of setting or modifying an order, and income actually earned while incarcerated is included. A parent sentenced to or incarcerated more than one hundred eighty days may request a modification.
• Failing to produce evidence of income. This is where the Guidelines apply presumed figures, and they are sex-specific: for initial orders, an annual gross income of $43,761 for a male parent and $35,936 for a female parent. Those are Tennessee median full-time, year-round gross income figures from the 2016 American Community Survey. For modifications, the rule instead allows increasing a non-cooperating parent’s income by up to ten percent per year for each year since the order was entered or last modified.

The practical point: if the other parent will not disclose income, you are not stuck. The Guidelines have an answer for it. But that answer is not the same as proving someone quit a job on purpose, and arguing the wrong one wastes a hearing.

Modification is about the math, not about circumstances

Parents often call because something changed. Tennessee does not modify support because circumstances changed. It modifies support because the calculation changes by enough.

That threshold is called a significant variance, and it is generally a fifteen percent difference between the current obligation and what the formula produces now. The comparison is run on the Child Support Worksheet using current evidence of income and expenses, and prior or proposed deviations are excluded from the comparison. A lower threshold applies to low-income providers; ask us how it is measured in your case rather than relying on a figure you read online.

• A variance caused only by a prior court-ordered deviation does not justify modification if the circumstances behind that deviation have not changed
• A downward modification is barred where the paying parent is willfully and voluntarily unemployed or underemployed
• Changes in the number of children a parent is responsible for, the parenting time adjustment, and work-related childcare can only be revisited if the significant variance requirement is met

Two things follow from this that matter in practice. First, support does not adjust itself: if you separated from the Army eight months ago and your order still reflects an E-6 with BAH, you are accruing an obligation at the old rate until a court changes it. Second, run the numbers before you file. A petition that does not clear fifteen percent is a petition you lose.

Enforcement, and what unpaid support can reach

Income assignment, meaning withholding directly from wages or military pay, is the default mechanism for Tennessee support orders rather than a penalty for falling behind. Beyond that:

• Each unpaid installment becomes a judgment automatically under T.C.A. § 36-5-101(f)(1)(A). No one has to go to court to create the debt
• Interest on arrears is capped by statute and is not automatic. Rates and the findings required have changed more than once in recent years, so we will tell you the current figure for your case rather than publish one here
• Licenses are at risk, and the list is broader than people expect. Professional and occupational licenses, hunting and fishing licenses, and driver licenses can all be denied, suspended, or revoked. Licenses to practice law are carved out. The Department of Human Services serves a notice of intent to certify noncompliance, and the obligor has twenty days to comply, request an administrative hearing, or make payment arrangements. Once DHS certifies, the licensing authority must act, and reinstatement requires a release from DHS
• Contempt is available to the court, in both civil and criminal form, and it can include incarceration

If you are behind, the single worst option is doing nothing. The arrears compound as judgments, and the enforcement tools get used. There is almost always more room to negotiate before a certification than after one.

Questions we hear in Clarksville

Does my BAH really count? I never see that money.

Yes. The Guidelines name BAH, BAS, and VHA specifically as income. We know how it feels, because the allowance goes to housing you have to live in. The rule is explicit and courts apply it.

How much will I actually pay?

It depends on both incomes, the number of children, the parenting time in your plan, and the add-ons for insurance and childcare. We can run the worksheet with you in a first meeting and give you a real number rather than a range.

My ex quit her job so I would have to pay more. Can the court treat her as working?

Possibly, but the burden is on you. The Guidelines do not presume anyone is willfully underemployed. If a court does find it, income can be allocated based on her earning capacity, drawing on her work history, education, and training.

I have the kids half the time. Why am I still paying?

Because the formula is driven by the difference in your incomes as well as the division of time. Equal time reduces the number but does not usually eliminate it, and if the self-support reserve applies the parenting time credit may not apply at all.

I separated from the Army and my income dropped. How fast can I fix the order?

Not retroactively, which is why speed matters. Support changes when a court changes it, and you need the new calculation to differ from the current order by enough to meet the significant variance threshold. Bring your last LES and your current pay information and we can tell you quickly whether you clear it.

Can they really take my hunting license?

Yes. Hunting and fishing licenses are within the statutory enforcement scheme, along with driver and professional licenses. The one notable exclusion is a license to practice law.

Do I get credit for the children I have with my current spouse?

There is a credit against gross income for qualified children living in your home, set at seventy-five percent of what support for those children would be. Children who do not live with you are handled differently, so tell us about every child you support.