Harris County, Texas - Co-Parenting Expense & Child Support Guide

Overview

Harris County (Houston metro) applies Texas Family Code chapter 154 for child support. Texas is a guideline state with a percentage schedule written into the statute, so the starting figure is unusually predictable. The single most important thing to get right: the percentages apply to the paying parent's monthly net resources on their own. They are not applied to the two parents' incomes added together, and the receiving parent's income does not enter the guideline schedule at all.

Child Support Calculation

Guideline schedule (Family Code §154.125)

The court presumptively applies this schedule to the obligor's monthly net resources. In Texas the "obligor" is the parent ordered to pay support, and the "obligee" is the parent who receives it.

Low-income schedule

If the obligor's monthly net resources are less than $1,000, a separate schedule in the same section applies instead: 15% for one child, 20% for two, 25% for three, 30% for four, 35% for five, and for six or more, not less than the amount for five children. This low-income schedule applies in cases filed on or after 1 September 2021.

The ceiling on net resources

The guideline schedule is designed to apply where the obligor's monthly net resources are not greater than a ceiling published by the Texas Attorney General in the Texas Register. That ceiling is adjusted every six years for inflation, taking effect on 1 September of the adjustment year. The Attorney General's own calculator currently states the figure as $11,700 per month in net resources. Because this number moves, check the Attorney General's calculator, linked at the bottom of this page, rather than relying on any figure printed here.

Where the obligor's net resources are above the ceiling, Family Code §154.126 says the court presumptively applies the percentages to the portion up to the ceiling. The court may then order more, depending on the income of the parties and the proven needs of the child. The obligor can never be required to pay more than the greater of the presumptive amount or 100 percent of the child's proven needs.

Children in more than one household

Where the obligor has a duty to support children who are not part of this case, Family Code §154.129 lets the court use a multiple family adjusted schedule instead, which lowers the percentage as the number of other children rises.

Net resources (Family Code §154.062)

Resources include:

• 100 percent of all wage and salary income and other compensation for personal services, including commissions, overtime pay, tips, and bonuses
• Interest, dividends, and royalty income
• Self-employment income
• Net rental income, meaning rent after operating expenses and mortgage payments but not after non-cash items such as depreciation
• All other income actually being received, including severance pay, retirement benefits, pensions, trust income, annuities, capital gains, social security other than supplemental security income, unemployment benefits, disability and workers' compensation benefits, gifts and prizes, spousal maintenance, and alimony

Resources do not include: return of principal or capital, accounts receivable, benefits paid under Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or another federal public assistance program, or payments for foster care of a child.

Deducted from resources to reach net resources:

• Social security taxes
• Federal income tax, calculated at the rate for a single person claiming one personal exemption and the standard deduction
• State income tax
• Union dues
• The cost of health insurance, dental insurance, or cash medical support for the obligor's child, where the court has ordered it
• Nondiscretionary retirement plan contributions, but only if the obligor does not pay social security taxes

Note what is not on that list. Housing, car payments, and consumer debt are not deducted, which is why net resources under the Family Code are usually higher than the money a parent feels they have left each month.

When The Court Can Order A Different Amount (§154.122 and §154.123)

The percentage schedule is a starting point, not a ceiling and not a floor. Under §154.122, the amount the guidelines produce is presumed reasonable, and an order that follows the guidelines is presumed to be in the child's best interest. The same section then says the court may find that applying the guidelines would be unjust or inappropriate in the circumstances.

§154.123 is where that happens. The court may order a different amount if the evidence rebuts the presumption and justifies the variance, and in deciding it must consider all relevant factors. The statute lists seventeen. The ones co-parents most often want to raise:

• The amount of time of possession of and access to the child - this is the shared-parenting factor. Note what it is not: the parenting-time split does not enter the percentage schedule, and a near-equal schedule does not reduce the amount automatically. It is a factor the court weighs on the evidence, and it has to be raised.
• The age and needs of the child, and each parent's ability to contribute
• Child care expenses either parent takes on in order to keep working
• Whether either parent has managing conservatorship or actual physical custody of another child
• The receiving parent's net resources, including what that parent could earn if they are deliberately unemployed or under-employed
• Health insurance provision and payment of uninsured medical costs, and any special or extraordinary educational, health care, or other expenses
• The cost of travel to exercise possession of and access to the child
• Education expenses for a child beyond secondary school
• A car, housing, or other benefits an employer or anyone else provides to either parent
• Spousal maintenance or alimony actually being paid or received, other deductions from either parent's pay, cash flow from property and business assets, and debts either parent has taken on
• Any other reason consistent with the best interest of the child

If the ordered amount does vary from the guideline percentages - or if either parent asks in time - §154.130 requires the order itself to state the paying parent's monthly net resources, the receiving parent's monthly net resources where evidence of them was offered, the percentage applied, and the specific reasons for the variance. Those written figures are what a later modification or enforcement case is measured against, so read them off your own order before you calculate anything.

Health Costs Shared On Top Of Support (Family Code §154.183)

Medical and dental support ordered under chapter 154 is in addition to guideline child support. It is itself a child support obligation, and it can be enforced by any means available for enforcing child support, including withholding from earnings.

As additional child support, §154.183(c) says the court allocates between the parties according to their circumstances:

1. 1. The reasonable and necessary health care expenses of the child, including vision and dental expenses, that insurance does not reimburse and that ordered cash medical support does not cover
2. 2. Amounts either parent pays as deductibles or copayments for health or dental care covered by a policy

"According to their circumstances" is the whole standard. The Family Code does not prescribe a fixed split for these costs, and it does not prorate them by the parents' incomes. Whatever percentages your own order sets are the ones that govern, so read the order before you calculate anything.

If the order says the receiving parent will carry the health or dental coverage at their own expense, the court increases the paying parent's child support by an amount not exceeding the actual cost of that coverage.

Reimbursement in practice

Chapter 154 does not set a statewide deadline for asking the other parent to reimburse you, so the deadline is whatever your own court order says. That makes the paper trail decisive. Keep the itemised bill, the explanation of benefits showing what insurance did and did not pay, proof that you paid, and a dated record of the request you sent.

Changing Or Enforcing An Order

• Changing the amount: Family Code chapter 156 governs modification. §156.401 gives two routes: the circumstances of the child or a person affected by the order have materially and substantially changed, or three years have passed since the order was made or last changed and the monthly amount now differs by either 20 percent or $100 from what the guidelines would produce.
• Making someone comply: Family Code chapter 157 governs enforcement, and lets a party join several claims and remedies in the same proceeding.
• Free help: the Texas Attorney General's Child Support Division opens and enforces cases at no charge to either parent.

Harris County family cases are filed with the Harris County District Clerk. Filing fees, e-filing steps, and hearing waits change, so use the Clerk's own site rather than any figure printed here.

Why SharedAnchor Fits Harris County

• Your order sets the split, so record it: Texas allocates uninsured health costs "according to the circumstances" of the parties rather than by a formula. SharedAnchor stores the split that was actually applied to each expense, so nobody has to reconstruct it later.
• No statutory deadline means the record decides it: with no statewide clock, a dated, tamper-evident history of every request and payment is what settles a disagreement.
• Uninsured amounts kept separate: deductibles, copayments, and unreimbursed medical, dental, and vision costs are additional child support, not part of the guideline percentage. Categorised expenses keep the two apart.
• Modification evidence: a suit to modify turns on a material and substantial change. A complete expense history shows what has actually changed rather than what each parent remembers.
• Enforcement accounting: if a parent falls behind on shared costs, the ledger gives an exact running total instead of a shoebox of receipts.