The 2023 North Carolina Child Support Guidelines became effective January 1, 2023, and reflect current economic factors, including tax rates, consumer price index, and poverty level.

1. Self-support reserve adjustment: this ensures that the person who pays child support has sufficient income to maintain a minimum standard of living based on the 2022 federal poverty level for one person. For obligors with an AGI of less than $1,150, the guidelines require, absent a deviation, the establishment of a minimum support order ($50).
2. Threshold for high combined income cases increased: in cases in which the parents' combined adjusted gross income is more than $40,000 per month ($480,000 per year), the supporting parent's basic child support obligation cannot be determined by using the child support schedule.
3. Imputed income change: in determining whether a parent’s voluntary unemployment or underemployment is the result of the parent’s bad faith or deliberate suppression of income, the court shall consider the specific circumstances of the parent, including the presence of a young or physically/mentally disabled child in the home of the parent impacting the parent’s ability to work.
4. Health Insurance update: vision insurance is now clearly included.
5. Added modification provision: in compliance with 45 C.F.R. § 303.8(d), the need to provide for the child’s health care needs in a child support order, through health insurance or other means, is a substantial change of circumstances warranting modification of a child support order, regardless of whether an adjustment in the amount of child support is necessary.

These guidelines provide a helpful summary of how child support is calculated, and also go into more detail concerning the following issues related to child support:

• Retroactive child support (a parent's obligation to support his or her child for a period before a child support action was filed);
• Parents with low incomes;
• Parents with high incomes;
• Income;
• Child Care Costs and how they related to child support;
• Health insurance and how it related to child support; and
• Other extraordinary expenses.

If the guidelines are applicable in your case, a presumptive child support obligation must be determined by using one of the following Child Support Worksheets: