For most cases, the North Carolina Child Support Guidelines will apply in making a determination of the amount of the basic child support obligation of each parent. The Guidelines take into consideration the following: the physical custody arrangement, a child support obligation for children not part of the order, work-related childcare costs, and health insurance premiums paid for the children. In addition, extraordinary expenses, such as special or private education to meet a child’s particular educational needs, or travel expenses for transporting the child between the parents’ homes may also be added to the basic child support obligation, if the court determines that the expenses are reasonable, necessary, and in the child’s best interest.
There are three worksheets available for the calculation based upon the custodial arrangement of the children:
Worksheet A, one parent has primary physical custody and the other has visitation
Worksheet B, the parents share joint physical custody of the child(ren)—based on the number of overnight visits with each parent, and a parent must have at least 123 overnights per year to use Worksheet B
Worksheet C, the parents split custody of the children (many different scenarios could exist, and we have found this Worksheet to be rarely used but a simple example is Child A resides primarily with Parent A and Child B resides primarily with Parent B)
Please visit this link to use these worksheets as a tool to assist you with estimating child support obligations: