South Carolina Child Support Calculator

At $6,000 per month in combined monthly gross income, South Carolina's guidelines produce roughly $571/month for 1 child, $855/month for 2 children, $1,017/month for 3 children, $1,136/month for 4 children. These figures come from running South Carolina's own guideline formula, but they hold several things constant -- assumes the higher earner has 65% of the combined income shown and has 100 of 365 overnights (below the 110-overnight shared-custody threshold, so Worksheet A applies), no alimony, no other support paid, no other children in either home, and no add-ons. Your actual number depends on both parents' incomes, your parenting-time schedule, and add-on costs like childcare and health insurance, so run the calculator for your own case.

South Carolina uses the Income Shares model. South Carolina looks up a basic support obligation from the 786-row statutory schedule by combined gross income and number of children, then prorates it by each parent's income share. Shared-custody cases -- where the parent with less time reaches 110 overnights a year -- use a 1.5× cross-calculation, blended gradually with the sole-custody figure through 127 overnights.

South Carolina's guideline runs on gross income (both parents). That distinction matters: entering gross income into a formula built on net income (or the reverse) produces a materially wrong figure. Most states count income from essentially any regular source -- wages, self-employment, bonuses, commissions, rental and investment income, and many benefits -- not just salary.

Not necessarily. In South Carolina: Worksheet C (shared custody) begins to apply once the parent with fewer overnights reaches 110 (30%) a year, and applies in full at 128; below 110, Worksheet A (sole custody) applies. Because the guideline also weighs each parent's share of income, a significantly higher earner can still owe support at an even time split.

This calculator's core formula has been verified against the primary source, with any unimplemented rules listed openly rather than hidden. It implements the guideline in effect as of 2024-01-01, and a human last checked it against the primary source on 2026-08-26. Sources: S.C. Code Regs. 114-4710 to 114-4750 — Child Support Guidelines; South Carolina Child Support Guidelines, 2024 Edition (DSS Booklet 2819, NOV 24). It is still an estimate, not a court order -- a judge can order a different amount, and this is not legal advice.

The South Carolina guideline this calculator implements took legal effect on 2024-01-01. States revise their guidelines periodically -- federal rules require each state to review its guidelines at least once every four years -- so a figure from an older calculator or article may reflect a superseded rule.

The 786-row Schedule of Basic Child Support Obligations was extracted programmatically from the booklet PDF and independently cross-checked against a separately-published edition of the same booklet (a different PDF at a different URL) — both agree on all 786 rows byte-for-byte, and the schedule is fully monotone in both income and child count with zero violations. See docs/sc-ak-calculator-plan.md §A3. The regulation's own prose for the graduated-band overnight factor (114-4730(A)(3)) describes a denominator of 18 (128 minus 110), but the official printed Worksheet C "Overnight factor" table is unambiguously consistent with a denominator of 19 for all 19 published values, and only /19 makes the graduated band join Worksheet C continuously at 128 overnights. This calculator implements the worksheet's /19, not the regulation prose's /18. Worksheet C line 12's obligation formula, as computed by the printed worksheet ("8(F) − 11(F) = 12(F)"), differs from the regulation's own narrative description of the same step (114-4730(A)(2)), which describes multiplying by that parent's own time percentage rather than the other parent's. This calculator implements the worksheet's arithmetic, corroborated by Alaska Civil Rule 90.3(b)(1)(B)'s identical cross-credit structure in an independent jurisdiction. 114-4710(A)(10)'s instruction to "extrapolate upwardly" between schedule rows is read as linear interpolation (consistent with how Virginia's identically-worded "extrapolated" instruction is implemented); an alternative reading — rounding up to the next $50 row — is not implemented. The self-support reserve mechanism (114-4720(A)(11)) is applied to the Worksheet A / graduated-band sole-custody calculation only. The regulation does not describe how, or whether, it applies to the full Worksheet C shared-custody worksheet, so it is not applied there. The work-related child-care tax-credit adjustment (114-4720(A)(14)) is implemented as: when the primary residential parent's income exceeds the published threshold, the lesser of an entered actual credit and a .27-of-expenses simulation (capped at $68/$135); when income does not exceed the threshold and no actual credit is entered, no adjustment is applied. The regulation's text does not fully specify this case. Split custody (Worksheet B) is not implemented — the calculator collects a single overnight split for all children. The twelve enumerated deviation factors under 114-4710(B) (educational expenses, equitable distribution, consumer debts, more than 6 children, extraordinary visitation travel, mandatory retirement/union deductions, substantial income disparity, lump-sum/rehabilitative alimony, party agreements, and others) are not calculated, only disclosed. Imputed/potential income for a voluntarily unemployed or underemployed parent, and imputed income on non-income-producing assets, are not calculated. Self-employment income is collected as a single gross figure; the regulation's business-expense reconstruction and accelerated-depreciation add-back (114-4720(A)(4)) are not implemented. Unreimbursed medical expenses above $250 per child per year (114-4720(A)(12)) are not collected as a calculator input or added to the computed support figure — the regulation describes this as a pro-rata division the parties handle directly, separate from the worksheet's own lines, rather than as a worksheet line item. If any of these apply to your case, treat the estimate as a starting point and confirm the figure with an attorney, a mediator, or South Carolina's official worksheet.

Yes. The figure produced by South Carolina's Income Shares guideline is presumptive, not mandatory: a court can order a different amount when applying the guideline would be unjust or inappropriate for the specific case, and generally must state its reason on the record. Common grounds include extraordinary medical or educational expenses, a child's special needs, or costs the formula does not capture. South Carolina's guideline is set out in S.C. Code Regs. 114-4710 to 114-4750 — Child Support Guidelines.

You have to file for a modification -- a change in your circumstances does not change what you owe on its own. South Carolina, like most states, requires a substantial change in circumstances: a significant involuntary income change, a change in the parenting schedule, or a material change in the child's needs. Until a court or the state child support agency issues a new order, the existing amount stays fully enforceable and arrears keep accruing, and a modification is generally not applied retroactively before the date you filed -- so filing promptly matters. In South Carolina, modifications are handled through Child Support Enforcement Division — SC DSS.

South Carolina publishes it directly: "Child Support — SC Dept. of Social Services". This site's calculator is a fast estimate built on the same published guideline, not a replacement for the official form -- a court filing generally requires the state's own worksheet. The link is in the South Carolina Resources section on this page.