Maine Child Support Guidelines: How Support Is Calculated

In Maine, child support is set using the income shares model: the court adds both parents' gross incomes together, finds the "basic support entitlement" for the children on the Maine Child Support Table, and then divides that total obligation between the parents in proportion to what each parent earns. The parent who does not provide primary day-to-day care typically pays their share to the parent who does.

How Maine calculates the basic support amount

Under the child support guidelines, the court or hearing officer first determines the annual gross income of each parent. Those two incomes are added together into a combined annual gross income, and that combined figure is applied to the Child Support Table to find the basic support entitlement for the child or children. Each parent's share of that entitlement is based on their proportion of the combined income — so a parent who earns 60% of the combined household income is generally responsible for 60% of the basic support entitlement.

This is why Maine's system is called an "income shares" model: it treats child support as both parents' shared obligation, calculated as if the household income were combined, rather than a payment set only off the paying parent's income.

What counts as gross income

For purposes of the guidelines, gross income includes income from an ongoing source — salaries, wages, commissions, bonuses, dividends, interest, pensions, capital gains, Social Security and disability benefits, and workers' compensation, among others. It does not include means-tested public assistance such as TANF, SSI, SNAP, or general assistance. In practice, this means most of a parent's regular earnings and benefit income are counted, but need-based public benefits are not treated as income available for support.

Special situations the guidelines address

Shared or nearly equal parenting time

When parents have unequal incomes but provide substantially equal care for the child, the guidelines use what's called an "enhanced support entitlement." This is the basic support entitlement multiplied by a factor of 1.5. In effect, when two parents are splitting parenting time roughly evenly but their incomes differ, the guideline formula scales up the support figure before dividing it between them, to account for the cost of maintaining two roughly equal households for the child.

High combined income

If the parents' combined annual gross income is more than $400,000, the Maine Child Support Table itself no longer applies. In that situation, the court sets support on a case-by-case basis rather than by reading an amount off the table.

Low-income paying parents

The guidelines also build in protection for lower-income parents. If the parent who does not have primary care has an annual gross income below the federal poverty guideline, the weekly child support obligation for each child cannot exceed 10% of that parent's weekly gross income, regardless of what the combined-income calculation would otherwise produce. The table itself is also designed with a self-support reserve for low-income paying parents, so a bare-bones amount for the paying parent's own basic needs is factored in before support is calculated.

Can a Maine court order an amount different from the guideline?

A court may deviate from the guideline amount, but only based on specific factors listed in the statute, and the court must put its reasoning in writing — specifically, a written finding that applying the guideline amount would be inequitable or inappropriate in that case. A guideline number is the starting point in every Maine case; departing from it requires that documented justification, not just an informal agreement between parents.

How long does child support last in Maine?

Time-sensitive note: Child support in Maine does not automatically stop the day a child turns 18 if the child is still in secondary school. The statute keeps the support obligation in force for a child between 18 and 19 years old who is still attending high school. Parents nearing a child's 18th birthday should confirm the child's enrollment status with the court or the child support unit rather than assuming payments end automatically.

When can a Maine child support order be changed?

Time-sensitive note: Maine treats a large enough gap between the old order and a fresh guideline calculation as an automatic trigger for review. If recalculating support under the current guidelines would change the existing order by more than 15%, that difference counts as a "substantial change of circumstances." The consequences depend on timing:

• If the existing order is less than three years old, the court must modify the order to match the guidelines once that 15% threshold is shown.
• If the existing order is more than three years old, it is reviewed and modified to the current guideline amount without the parent needing to separately prove a change in circumstances at all.

This means it's worth periodically re-running the guideline calculation against an existing order, especially as the three-year mark approaches or passes, since the standard for getting an update becomes easier over time.

How is Maine child support enforced, including across state lines?

Child support enforcement in Maine operates within a federal framework that every state must follow. Federal law requires each state to run a child-support enforcement (IV-D) agency and to have tools such as automatic income withholding, paternity establishment procedures, license suspension, and liens available to collect unpaid support. Federal law also waives sovereign immunity so that federal wages and certain federal benefits can be garnished to satisfy a support obligation.

If parents live in different states, federal law requires every state to enforce a child-support order issued by another state and generally bars a second state from modifying that order except under narrow continuing-jurisdiction rules — this is the federal rule that works alongside Maine's version of the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act to determine which state's order controls.

Child support obligations also receive strong protection in bankruptcy. A domestic support obligation such as child support (or alimony) cannot be discharged in bankruptcy, and it is paid first among unsecured claims. Property-settlement debts owed to a former spouse under a divorce decree are also generally non-dischargeable in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

What you can do in Maine

1. Gather income documentation for both parents — pay stubs, tax returns, and records of any bonuses, benefits, or other ongoing income — since the calculation starts with each parent's gross income.
2. Identify your parenting-time arrangement before assuming which guideline calculation applies; substantially equal care with unequal incomes may trigger the enhanced (1.5x) entitlement rather than the basic one.
3. Check whether your combined income is near or above the table's applicable range; if combined gross income exceeds $400,000, the standard table figure won't apply and the case will be handled individually.
4. If you are the lower-earning parent, ask whether your income falls under the federal poverty guideline, which can cap your weekly obligation per child at 10% of your weekly gross income.
5. If you want an amount different from the guideline, be prepared to point to one of the specific statutory deviation factors — a court needs a written finding to deviate, not just informal agreement.
6. If it's been a while since your order was set, run the current guideline numbers against your existing order; a difference of more than 15% may qualify you for a modification, and the standard is even easier to meet once the order is more than three years old.
7. Confirm your Maine court's current filing procedures for establishing, modifying, or enforcing a support order, since local forms and processes can change.

This article is for general information only and is not legal advice; confirm current details with the Maine courts or a licensed Maine attorney before relying on them.