Nevada Child Support Guidelines Explained: How NAC 425 Calculates the Obligation

Who is the obligor and who is the obligee

The regulation uses two defined terms. An 'obligor' is a person who incurs a legal obligation to provide support for one or more children under an order, and an 'obligee' is a person entitled to receive those payments (NAC 425.035, NAC 425.037). If a party has primary physical custody of a child, that party is deemed the obligee and the other party is the obligor (NAC 425.115(2)).

Joint physical custody changes the picture: where the parties share joint physical custody of at least one child, each party is an obligor (NAC 425.037), and each party's obligation is computed before the two are offset (see the custody section below).

Every order must be based on the obligor's earnings, income and other evidence of ability to pay (NAC 425.100(1)). The obligor's monthly gross income is set either by stipulation of the parties or by the court after considering all financial information relevant to the obligor's earning capacity, and the court may order either party to produce financial records including tax returns (NAC 425.120).

What counts as gross income

NAC 425.025 defines gross income broadly and was clarified by R139-23. As amended, gross income includes, among other things:

• Monetary compensation incident to employment, including salary, wages, commissions, and money earned from overtime pay or bonuses when that compensation is substantial, consistent and can be accurately determined (NAC 425.025(1)(a)).
• Interest and investment income (not including principal), Social Security disability and old-age insurance benefits, periodic pension or annuity payments that are remuneration for employment, and the net proceeds of workers' compensation or personal injury awards intended to replace income (NAC 425.025(1)(b) to (e)).
• Unemployment insurance, income continuation benefits, voluntary deferred compensation and retirement contributions, military allowances and veterans' benefits, compensation for lost wages, and undistributed income of a business the party controls, unless that income is already counted as an asset when imputing income under NAC 425.125 (NAC 425.025(1)(f) to (k)).
• Alimony received, and self-employment income calculated after deducting all legitimate business expenses but without deducting personal income taxes, retirement or pension contributions, or other personal expenses (NAC 425.025(1)(m) and (n)).
• All other income of the party, taxable or not, except the exclusions listed in subsection 2 (NAC 425.025(1)(o)).

Gross income does not include child support received, foster care or kinship care payments, SNAP benefits, county cash benefits, Supplemental Security Income and state supplemental payments, most public assistance, or personal injury damages that are not intended to replace income (NAC 425.025(2)).

If the court finds after taking evidence that an obligor is underemployed or unemployed without good cause, it may impute income. R139-23 added that this expressly includes an obligor who forgoes or limits employment to care for the child. In imputing income the court must consider the obligor's assets, residence, work history, skills, education, literacy, age, health, criminal record and other employment barriers, record of seeking work, the local job market, the availability of employers willing to hire, and prevailing local earnings (NAC 425.125).

The base obligation: bracketed percentages under NAC 425.140

The base child support obligation is computed from the obligor's monthly gross income using marginal brackets, in the same way income tax brackets work. Each percentage applies only to the slice of income within its band, and the slices are added together (NAC 425.140).

• One child: 16% of the first $6,000 of monthly gross income, plus 8% of the portion above $6,000 up to and including $10,000, plus 4% of any portion above $10,000.
• Two children: 22% of the first $6,000, 11% of the portion above $6,000 up to and including $10,000, and 6% of the portion above $10,000.
• Three children: 26% of the first $6,000, 13% of the portion above $6,000 up to and including $10,000, and 6% of the portion above $10,000.
• Four children: 28% of the first $6,000, 14% of the portion above $6,000 up to and including $10,000, and 7% of the portion above $10,000.
• Each additional child: an additional 2% on the first $6,000, an additional 1% on the portion above $6,000 up to and including $10,000, and an additional 0.5% on the portion above $10,000.

Worked example. An obligor earns $8,000 in monthly gross income and supports one child. The first $6,000 is charged at 16%, which is $960. The remaining $2,000 falls in the second bracket at 8%, which is $160. The base obligation is $960 plus $160, or $1,120 per month. A common mistake is to apply 16% to the whole $8,000, which would overstate the base by $160.

R139-23 did not amend NAC 425.140 at all: the percentages, the brackets and the name 'base child support obligation' were already there. What R139-23 added is the defined 'total child support obligation' (section 1 of R139-23), of which the NAC 425.140 result is one component, together with matching 'total' and 'base' terminology in NAC 425.100, 425.110, 425.115 and 425.145 (sections 3 to 5 and 9) so that the two figures are distinguished throughout. The total obligation is described next.

From base to total: child care, medical support and adjustments

Section 1 of R139-23 added a new section to NAC 425 providing that, unless the parties stipulate under NAC 425.110, the court determines the total child support obligation as the sum of four items: the base obligation under NAC 425.140 or NAC 425.145, any equitable division of child care costs under NAC 425.130, any equitable division of medical support under NAC 425.135, and any adjustments under NAC 425.150.

Child care. After determining the base obligation, the court must consider the reasonable costs of child care paid by either or both parties and make an equitable division of them. The regulation does not fix that division at any particular percentage. Every order issued or modified must include, to the extent applicable, the amount of child care costs the obligor must pay and written findings on the child care costs proposed, the cost of reasonable alternatives, both parties' ability to pay, whether either party has elected to forgo or limit employment to care for the child, whether child care will allow a party to obtain job-related training or education, and any other relevant factor (NAC 425.130, as amended by R139-23 section 7).

Medical support. The court must likewise consider the reasonable medical support paid by either or both parties and make an equitable division of it, and every order must specify that medical support is required and any details of that requirement (NAC 425.135). Medical support includes the premium for accessible medical, vision or dental coverage that is reasonable in cost. A premium is 'reasonable in cost' if either (I) the cost to the party responsible for providing medical support is not more than 5% of that party's monthly gross income, or (II) the cost of adding the child to existing coverage, or the difference between individual and family coverage, whichever is less, is not more than 5% of that party's monthly gross income; and, in either case, the court has assessed the plan, including its copayments, deductible and out-of-pocket maximum, and determined that it is reasonable in cost (NAC 425.135(3)).

Adjustments. The court may adjust the obligation, on specific findings of fact, for: any special educational needs of the child; the parties' legal responsibility for the support of others; the value of services contributed by either party; any public assistance (as defined in NRS 422A.065) paid to support the child; the cost of transporting the child to and from visitation; the relative income of both households, so long as the adjustment does not exceed the total obligation of the other party; any other necessary expenses for the child's benefit; and the obligor's ability to pay (NAC 425.150(1)). The court may also include a child's Social Security dependent benefit in the parent's gross income and subtract that benefit from the obligor's obligation, but never so as to require the obligee to reimburse the obligor (NAC 425.150(2)).

The low-income schedule under NAC 425.145

If the court determines that the total economic circumstances of an obligor limit his or her ability to pay the base obligation computed under NAC 425.140, the base obligation must instead be set from a low-income schedule tied to the current federal poverty guidelines (NAC 425.145(1)). The schedule must be published by the Administrative Office of the Courts on or before March 31 of each year (NAC 425.145(3)), so the figures move annually.

The published table runs from 75% to 150% of the one-person monthly federal poverty level. For 2026, the first income row is $998 and the last is $1,995 in monthly gross income. At each row the table lists a percentage and a dollar amount per number of children; the percentages rise gradually so that at the top row they equal the NAC 425.140 first-bracket rates (16% for one child, 22% for two, and so on). For example, the 2026 table sets one-child support at $105 for income up to $998 and at $319 for income up to $1,995.

If the obligor's monthly gross income is below the lowest row of the schedule, the court may establish an appropriate obligation based on the obligor's total economic circumstances, balancing the obligor's need for self-support against the duty to support the child (NAC 425.145(2)). Above the top row, NAC 425.140 governs.

Incarceration or involuntary institutionalization for 180 consecutive days or more is treated as a substantial change in circumstances warranting review; it must not be treated as voluntary unemployment, and income must not be imputed to an incarcerated obligor. If support was reduced during incarceration, it is reset on release using the lowest income row of the low-income schedule (or the higher amount if the court ordered one) beginning the first day of the month after release (NAC 425.155). NAC 425.155 applies only to orders issued or modified in Nevada on or after February 1, 2020 (R183-18, section 22, reproduced in the Reviser's Note to NAC 425.155).

Custody arrangements: primary, joint and split

Primary physical custody. The parent without primary physical custody is the obligor, and that parent's total obligation is computed as described above (NAC 425.115(2)).

Joint physical custody. Each party's total child support obligation is determined separately, and the two obligations are then offset so that the party with the higher obligation pays the other party the difference (NAC 425.115(3)). This codifies the offset method the Nevada Supreme Court adopted in Wright v. Osburn, 114 Nev. 1367 (1998). The paying parent pays the full difference between the two figures, not half of it. As amended by R139-23, NAC 425.115(3) states expressly that the figures offset are each party's total child support obligation, so child care, medical support and adjustments are inside the netting, not layered on afterward.

Split custody. Where the parties have two or more children and each party has joint physical custody or primary physical custody of at least one, but not all, of the children, each party's total obligation is computed based on the number of children to whom that party owes support, and the obligations are then offset with the higher-obligation party paying the difference (NAC 425.115(4)). Before R139-23 this subsection reached only joint-custody splits; section 5 of R139-23 extended it to arrangements where each parent has primary custody of at least one child.

No floor, no ceiling, and the requirement of written findings

The current guidelines contain no minimum monthly amount and no maximum. The former statutory scheme in NRS Chapter 125B, which set support as flat percentages of gross monthly income subject to presumptive maximums, was replaced in the 2020 transition: Assembly Bill 278 (2017) repealed NRS 125B.070 effective February 1, 2020, when the NAC 425 guidelines took effect, and that section no longer appears in NRS Chapter 125B. Under NAC 425.140 the top bracket applies to all income above $10,000 with no cap, and under NAC 425.145 the practical floor is the lowest row of the low-income schedule, below which the court exercises discretion.

The guideline result is a presumption, not a mandate. It is presumed that a child's basic needs are met by the total obligation computed under the guidelines, but that presumption may be rebutted by evidence that the needs of the particular child are not met or are exceeded by that amount (NAC 425.100(2)). If the court sets support higher or lower than the guideline total, it must set forth findings of fact explaining the basis for the adjustment and must state in those findings the total obligation that the guidelines would have produced (NAC 425.100(3)).

Parties may stipulate to an amount that departs from the guidelines, but the stipulation is binding only if it is in writing, states each party's current monthly gross income, specifies what the total obligation under the guidelines would be, warns both parties that on any later review the court will recalculate under the guidelines, contains the obligee's certification that he or she is not receiving cash assistance through Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, certifies that the child's basic needs are met or exceeded, and is approved and adopted as an order of the court. The court may reject a stipulation that is the product of coercion or that does not meet the child's needs (NAC 425.110).

What the 2025 amendment (R139-23) changed

• Created the 'total child support obligation' as a defined sum of the base obligation, child care, medical support and adjustments (R139-23 section 1), and inserted matching 'total' and 'base' terminology into NAC 425.100, 425.110, 425.115 and 425.145 so the two figures are distinguished (sections 3 to 5 and 9); NAC 425.140 itself was not amended.
• Required written findings on the equitable division of child care costs, including whether a party has elected to forgo or limit employment to care for the child (section 7), and clarified that such an election does not prevent the court from finding underemployment and imputing income (section 6).
• Required an equitable division of medical support between the parties and a provision in every order that medical support is required (section 8).
• Clarified gross income to include commissions and bonuses that are substantial and consistent, alimony received, and self-employment income net of legitimate business expenses but not personal taxes or personal expenses (section 2).
• Extended the split-custody computation to cases where each parent has primary physical custody of at least one child (section 5).
• Changed the stipulation certification from 'not receiving public assistance' to 'not receiving cash assistance through TANF' (section 4), and defined 'public assistance' for the adjustment factors by reference to NRS 422A.065 (section 10).
• Moved the termination date for an order covering one child to the first day of the month following the month in which the child turns 18 or, if still in high school, graduates or turns 19, whichever comes first, matching the rule that already applied to multi-child orders that allocate an amount per child (section 11, amending NAC 425.160(1)); multi-child orders that do not allocate an amount per child still require a motion or stipulation (NAC 425.160(3)).

R139-23 did not change the bracket percentages, the income thresholds, the offset method for joint custody, or the mechanics of the low-income schedule. The adoption or revision of the guidelines is not, by itself, a change in circumstances that justifies modifying an existing order (NAC 425.170(3)).

This explainer is general information about Nevada law and is not legal advice. Facts matter, and the guidelines leave several points to the court's judgment. Consult a licensed Nevada attorney about your situation.