Presumptive child support obligations are largely determined by Virginia’s statutory support guidelines. However, the court’s have the authority to “deviate” from the guidelines based on many factors. The most critical variable for calculating child support include (i) number of children, (ii) gross incomes of the parties, (iii) which party is the custodian of the child,(iv) how many days the “non custodian party has a child (0 to 90 days is per year if calculated on the sole guidelines and 90+ is calculated on the shared guidelines), (v) the cost of health insurance and (f) the cost of any reasonable “work related” child care among others.  Click on this link to read the Code section the court must rely upon in determining child support decisions.