Child support with shared or 50/50 custody in New York (2026)

Do you still pay child support with 50/50 custody in New York?

Usually, yes. New York’s guideline, the Child Support Standards Act in Family Court Act § 413(1) and Domestic Relations Law § 240(1-b), has no shared custody formula. Parenting time is not one of the steps. The court works out combined parental income, applies the percentage for the number of children, and splits the result by income. The parent the children do not live with most pays their share to the other parent.

That is different from states such as Virginia, where the formula itself changes once each parent has the children for more than a set number of days. See the Virginia shared custody guide for that approach.

Which parent pays when parenting time is shared?

The statute names a parent who receives support and a parent who pays, without saying how parenting time decides which is which. The Court of Appeals held in Bast v. Rossoff (91 N.Y.2d 723, 728, 1998) that the guideline applies to shared custody and that the parent who receives support is usually the one with physical custody of the child for the majority of the time. The First Department counts that time in overnights, not waking hours (Rubin v. Della Salla, 107 A.D.3d 60, 2013). When time is not even, that answers the question, even if the parent with more time earns more.

When time is truly equal, neither parent has the children for the majority of the time. The Third Department held in Baraby v. Baraby (250 A.D.2d 201, 204, 1998) that the parent with the greater pro rata share of the guideline amount is then the paying parent. That share follows the parents’ shares of combined parental income, after the deductions the statute allows such as Social Security and Medicare, so it is the parent with the larger income share. That parent pays their share of the guideline amount to the other parent. The Second Department (Barr v. Cannata, 57 A.D.3d 813, 2008) and the Fourth Department (Matter of Carlino v. Carlino, 277 A.D.2d 897, 2000) apply the same rule, and the First Department describes it in Rubin. No appellate case found says which parent pays when both the time and the incomes are equal.

The amount is still the guideline amount unless the court finds it unjust or inappropriate. In Carlino, the Fourth Department treated an even split of time as extended visitation under § 413(1)(f)(9), so the court could lower the amount if the paying parent’s costs substantially reduce the other household’s costs.

Does more parenting time lower child support in New York?

Not through the formula. A schedule with more overnights does not change the guideline amount.

It can matter through the deviation factors. The court orders the guideline amount unless it finds that amount unjust or inappropriate, considering ten factors in § 413(1)(f). Two of them concern time with the children:

• (f)(5) the non-monetary contributions each parent makes to the care and well-being of the child;
• (f)(9) if the child is not on public assistance, extraordinary expenses the paying parent has in exercising visitation, or expenses of extended visitation where the other parent’s expenses are substantially reduced as a result.

If the court orders a different amount, it has to state in writing the factors it considered, each parent’s share of the guideline amount, and its reasons (§ 413(1)(g)).

What if the parent the children live with earns more?

The guideline still runs from the parent the children live with most. Higher income on that side does not reverse who pays when the time is not equal. With truly equal time it does: the parent with the larger income share pays, which in the examples below is the second case. For one child, with $6,000 a month for the parent the children live with and $4,000 a month for the other parent, the guideline is $627.98 a month, paid by the other parent to the parent the children live with.

With the incomes the other way round, it is $941.97 a month, paid by the other parent to the parent the children live with. In both cases the amount is the percentage applied to the other parent’s own income, because below the cap the percentage of combined income, split by income share, comes to the same thing.

Open this family in the New York calculator

Can parents agree to no child support?

Parents can agree on an amount, including one below the guideline. Under § 413(1)(h), the agreement must say that both parents were told about the guidelines and that the guideline amount would be presumptively correct, state what that amount is, and give the reasons if they agreed to something different. These statements cannot be waived. A court can refuse to use an agreement that does not meet them.

What this guide does not cover

The calculator does not take parenting days for New York: it treats the parent you enter as the parent the children live with as the one who receives support. For a truly equal schedule, the parent with the larger income share is the one entered as the other parent. A schedule that is close to equal but not equal is decided by overnights, and a court can weigh more than this guide covers. Split custody, where each parent has at least one of the children, is not covered. The engine also leaves out these parts of New York’s guideline:

• Deductions from income not modeled: unreimbursed employee business expenses, maintenance paid to a spouse who is not a party, maintenance paid to the other parent (deducted only when the order or agreement provides a child support adjustment for when it ends), child support actually paid for other children, public assistance, SSI, and New York City or Yonkers income taxes (FCA § 413(1)(b)(5)(vii)(A) to (G)).
• Social Security and Medicare are computed as an employee pays them; self-employment tax is not modeled.
• Cash medical support when the children have no health insurance and are on Medicaid or the state child health plan is not modeled. It is capped at 5% of the paying parent's gross income or that parent's income above the self-support reserve, whichever is less (FCA § 413(1)(c)(5)(iii) and (iv)).
• Education costs and child care while the custodial parent looks for work are added at the court's discretion (FCA § 413(1)(c)(6) and (7)); not modeled.

The figures are estimates of the guideline amount. A court can order a different amount, and an existing order only changes when it is modified.