Glossary
Tennessee Child Support Guidelines
The state rules used to calculate child support based primarily on both parents’ incomes, parenting time, and applicable adjustments and credits.
Also called: income shares
Tennessee uses an income shares model: the guidelines estimate what the parents would have spent on the child together, then divide that figure between them according to income and parenting days.
The formula is published, but the inputs are what get argued about. Gross income includes more than salary, and can include self-employment income, bonuses, commissions, and in some circumstances earning capacity where a parent is voluntarily underemployed. Credits apply for health insurance premiums, work-related childcare, and other children a parent supports.
Because the calculation is mechanical once the inputs are fixed, most support disputes are really disputes about income or about the number of parenting days, not about the arithmetic.
General information about Tennessee law, not legal advice. How this applies depends on the facts of your matter.
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