A mother at the kitchen table working through the child support worksheet with a pay stub, a calculator and a coffee, her son’s school photo beside her

Child support in Colorado: the fight is the inputs.

Both parents’ incomes, combined, drive a statutory schedule. For most families the math is mechanical. For the families I represent the fight is almost never the table; it is the inputs: what income is, and how many overnights.

→Run the child support calculator
01How the formula works
02What counts as income
03Overnights move the number
04Above the schedule
05The rule people break
06What to bring
→Income when you own the company

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Run the 2026 calculator →Call 303-507-5529 Text me

Run the 2026 child support worksheet.

Two incomes and the overnights. The $40,000 schedule, the per-overnight credit, the self-support reserve, child care and insurance, line by line as JDF 1821 does it, with a report you can save. It runs in your browser: nothing you enter is sent anywhere.

Open the child support calculator →

Maintenance and child support togetherEnter everything once: maintenance first, then child support on the adjusted incomes, then the total transfer. Count the overnightsAlternating weeks, 2-2-3, 2-2-5-5, every other weekend and the rest, with holidays and summer, to the count and the credit it earns.

Support built on the wrong number is wrong every month for years. The worksheet is the easy part.

Colorado calculates child support on an income-shares model. Under C.R.S. § 14-10-115 the parents’ combined monthly adjusted gross income and the number of children produce a basic obligation from the statutory schedule, divided between the parents in proportion to income. Health insurance, childcare and extraordinary expenses layer on. Since March 1, 2026 every overnight generates a graduated parenting-time credit; the old 93-overnight cliff is gone.

For a W-2 employee the inputs are on a pay stub. For an owner, a partner or an executive paid in bonus and equity, the input that matters is income, and what income is takes the same work that drives maintenance and valuation. That is where a lawyer who reads a K-1 as an operator earns his fee, and it is what this page is about.

The Colorado child support guideline schedule, a worksheet and a pay stub on a desk — The schedule, the worksheet, the pay stub

$40,000

A month, top of the schedule

The 2026 amendments extended the guideline to combined income of $40,000 a month, $480,000 a year. Above it, the court has discretion, with a floor.

Every night

Moves the number

Since March 1, 2026 each overnight generates a graduated parenting-time credit. Schedule and support are negotiated with each other in view.

How the number is built.

Five steps. The court runs them the same way for every family; what changes is what goes in.

A child support worksheet — The worksheet, once the inputs are right

Step 01
Combine both incomes.
Each parent’s monthly adjusted gross income, from every source, added together. Maintenance paid or received is adjusted first.
Step 02
Read the schedule.
The combined income and the number of children give the basic obligation from the statutory table, which now runs to $40,000 a month.
Step 03
Divide in proportion to income.
Each parent’s share of the basic obligation is that parent’s percentage of the combined income. The higher earner usually pays, even at equal time.
Step 04
Credit the overnights.
Each parent’s share is reduced by the statutory percentage for that parent’s overnights. Every night counts; there is no cliff. A low-income obligor gets the self-support reserve, $1,831.83 a month in 2026, before anything is added.
Step 05
Add the add-ons, and net it out.
Work-related child care net of the federal credit, the children’s share of health insurance, and ongoing extraordinary expenses, shared by income; each parent is credited for what that parent pays directly. The difference is the order.

Where the case is actually decided.

Three places. Two of them are on this page in detail; the third has a page of its own.

A Schedule K-1 and a profit and loss statement, one line highlighted

Input one · Income

What income is, for an owner.

W-2 wages are easy. K-1 allocations, retained earnings, distributions, depreciation and perks are not, and the statute’s definition of income (C.R.S. § 14-10-115(5)) reaches all of them; for an owner the difference between reported income and real economic income can be the whole case. The same income-normalization work that drives maintenance and business valuation drives support: personal expenses run through the company come back in, a peak year is not capacity, and the same dollars should not fund a valuation and a support order twice. If a parent is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed, the court can use potential income instead, on the evidence of a vocational assessment.

What I do

Normalize owner compensation from three to five years of returns, not one
Separate true economic income from paper income, line by line, before the other side does
Where capacity is the issue, retain the vocational expert early

A father cooking dinner for his two children at the kitchen counter on a school night, homework open, backpacks still on

Input two · Overnights

Every overnight moves the number.

Under the parenting-time credit in C.R.S. § 14-10-115(8), as amended effective March 1, 2026, every overnight generates a graduated parenting-time credit. The old 93-overnight cliff, where one night changed the formula all at once, is gone, so each night moves the number incrementally. That is why schedule design and support are negotiated with each other in view: they are connected systems, not separate topics, and a schedule chosen for the children has a support consequence that should be known before it is signed.

What I do

Run the support calculation on every schedule under discussion, before anyone agrees to one
Draft the schedule so the overnights are countable: exchanges, holidays, summer, written down
Keep the schedule about the children; the number follows

A business credit card statement with personal charges highlighted beside a K-1

Input three · Above the schedule

Above $40,000 a month, discretion starts.

The 2026 amendments extended the guideline schedule (C.R.S. § 14-10-115(7)) to combined adjusted gross income of $40,000 a month, $480,000 a year, up from the prior $30,000 cap. Above the top of the schedule the statute hands the question to judicial discretion, with one floor: the presumptive obligation generally cannot be less than it would be at the top. For high earners that converts support from arithmetic into advocacy: the child’s reasonable needs, the family’s actual standard of living, and what the evidence shows.

What I do

Build the record of what the children’s life actually costs, not a wish list and not a floor
Put private school, activities and travel into the order as extraordinary expenses, allocated by income share
Price the whole package, support and maintenance together, after tax

What I tell every parent about support.

Five rules. One of them protects everyone, and it is the one people break at their peril.

Across a conference table from her lawyer, a woman listens, a closed folder in front of her, the foothills in the window

Support and parenting time are independent.
Neither parent may withhold one to enforce the other. The remedy for nonpayment is enforcement; the remedy for missed time runs through the court. The parent who links them loses credibility in both cases at once.
Get the income right before the calculator.
The worksheet will take any number you give it. The number is the case.
Put the extras in the order.
Private school, significant activities, travel for parenting time. Agreed or ordered extraordinary expenses, allocated by income share, in writing, so they are not an argument every August.
Equal time does not mean no support.
It changes the calculation; it rarely zeroes it. Know the number before you agree to the schedule.
File when the change happens.
A modification reaches only installments due after the motion is filed. A ten-percent change under the guideline is the usual benchmark for substantial and continuing.

Five things parents get wrong.

50/50 means no support.

Equal time changes the formula; it does not erase it. When incomes differ, the higher earner typically still pays under the shared-care calculation.

My bonus doesn’t count.

Gross income is income from any source: salary, bonus, commissions, business income, dividends, rents. A bonus that recurs is income; the argument is over the average, not the existence.

I can stop paying if I can’t see the kids.

Support and parenting time are independent obligations. Withholding support to enforce time is a contempt case with your name on it.

We can agree to any number.

Parents can agree, but the court has to find the result adequate for the children, and a deviation from the guideline needs findings behind it.

The guideline stops at $30,000.

Not since 2026. The schedule runs to $40,000 a month; above it the court has discretion, with a floor at the top of the schedule.

The 93-overnight rule.

Gone since March 1, 2026. Every overnight generates a graduated credit; there is no cliff to fight over.

What to bring, and what to settle first.

Before the first meeting

Bring the inputs.

Three years of tax returns, with W-2s, K-1s and 1099s, for both parents if you have them
Recent pay stubs and any bonus, commission or equity plan
The cost of the children’s health insurance, and who carries it
Work-related childcare costs
Tuition, activities and anything else you think should be an extraordinary expense
The overnight schedule as it actually runs, on a calendar
Any existing support order or maintenance order

Before you agree to a number

Six things settled first.

Both incomes established on evidence, not on the other side’s worksheet
Owner or bonus income normalized over years, not a peak
Potential income, if a parent is not working and could be
The overnight count on the schedule you are actually agreeing to
Extraordinary expenses named and allocated in the order
Maintenance run first, because it changes both parents’ income for support

The worksheet will take any number you give it. The number is the case.

Before you agree to a support figure, run the inputs with me →

The statute · The 2026 amendments · Extraordinary expenses · Modification and enforcement

The statute.

Under C.R.S. § 14-10-115, child support is calculated from the parents’ combined monthly adjusted gross income and the number of children, using the statutory schedule of basic support obligations, divided between the parents in proportion to their incomes. Gross income means income from any source, with the statute’s exclusions, and a parent who is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed can be assigned potential income. Maintenance actually paid or received is adjusted before the schedule is consulted, which is why maintenance is run first.

The 2026 amendments.

Two changes matter most. The schedule now runs to combined adjusted gross income of $40,000 a month, $480,000 a year, up from $30,000; above it the court exercises discretion with the top-of-schedule amount as a floor. And effective March 1, 2026, parenting time is credited on a graduated scale for every overnight, replacing the 93-overnight threshold at which the formula used to switch all at once. Both changes make the inputs, income and the schedule, matter more, not less.

Extraordinary expenses.

Basic support covers the ordinary costs of raising a child. Private-school tuition, significant extracurriculars and similar costs are addressed as agreed or ordered extraordinary expenses, allocated between the parents by income share. I put them in the order rather than leave them to annual argument, and I draft how they are paid and documented.

Modification and enforcement.

Support is modifiable on a substantial and continuing change of circumstances (C.R.S. § 14-10-122); a guideline recalculation that moves the number by ten percent or more is the usual benchmark, and relief runs from the filing date. Unpaid support is a judgment as it comes due, enforceable by wage assignment, liens and contempt. The procedure, for support and for parenting orders, is on modifying custody and support and enforcement and contempt.

The support questions with real money attached.

How is child support calculated in Colorado?

On an income-shares model. Both parents’ monthly adjusted gross incomes are combined, the statutory schedule gives a basic obligation for that income and number of children, and the obligation is divided between the parents in proportion to income. Health insurance, childcare and extraordinary expenses are added, and each overnight the child spends with a parent adjusts that parent’s share. The worksheet is mechanical; the inputs are the case.

I own my company. How will my income be determined?

Carefully, by someone. Better that it is your side doing the careful work: normalizing owner compensation, separating true economic income from paper income, and presenting it credibly. K-1 allocations, retained earnings, distributions, depreciation and perks are all argued. Support built on a wrong number is wrong every month for years.

We share time 50/50. Does anyone pay support?

Usually yes. Equal time changes the formula; it does not erase it. When incomes differ, and in my cases they almost always do, the higher earner typically still pays under the shared-care calculation.

Can we just agree on our own number?

Parents can agree, but the court must find the result adequate for the children, and a deviation from the guideline needs findings supporting it. A well-drafted agreement anticipates that and gives the court what it needs to approve your deal.

What if my spouse is not working?

If a parent is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed, the court can calculate support on potential income, what they could earn, with exceptions for incapacity, a child under twenty-four months and good-faith education or career choices. The evidence is a vocational assessment and the job-search record, not argument.

Can child support be modified later?

Yes, on a substantial and continuing change of circumstances. A recalculation under the guideline that moves the number by ten percent or more is the usual benchmark. The change reaches only installments due after the motion is filed, so file when the change happens.

How long does child support last?

Until the child is emancipated, which in Colorado is nineteen, with extensions while a child is still in high school and for a child who cannot support themselves because of a disability. Parents can agree to more, for example college costs, and the court will enforce what they agree.

Keep reading

Where to go next.

The next page in this chapter, the pages that belong with it, and the blog posts on the same question.

Next in Chapter II · The Children

Parentage & PaternityEstablishing or contesting parentage: DNA testing, the acknowledgment, support and custodyRead it next →

From the blog, on this topic

Sept 16, 2026Colorado's New Child Support Law: What Changed on March 1, 2026

Colorado rebuilt child support on March 1, 2026: a schedule that now runs to $40,000 a month, a credit for every overnight in place of the 93-night cliff, a…

Sept 14, 2026Who Pays for the Kids' Health Insurance After a Colorado Divorce?

Colorado courts must decide who carries the children's health insurance in every child support order. How the premium enters the worksheet, how uninsured bills…

All articles from the blog →

Previous‹ The Parenting Plan, Clause by ClauseThis chapterChapter II · The Children →

Before anyone runs the calculator, let’s establish the real inputs.

A consultation is a working session, in person in Greenwood Village or by video: we go through both incomes as they actually are, the overnight schedule, and I tell you what the number should be and why. Your note reaches my office directly; during business hours we call you back within the hour, run the conflicts check, and set the meeting.

The fastest thing you can do today

Talk to us about your case.

303-507-5529

Call now →Text us

Rather write? Send a short note and during business hours we call you back within the hour.

A person answersMonday–Friday, 9 to 5No obligation