Imputing Income for Child Support in Tennessee

Whether or not they're married to each other, parents must financially support their minor children. When parents are separated or divorced, courts usually order the noncustodial parent (the one who doesn't have the children most of the time) to pay child support to the custodial parent.

Under the guidelines for child support in Tennessee, the amount of support primarily depends on both parents' income. Since higher income generally results in higher child support, some noncustodial parents purposely reduce or hide their income to lower their child support obligation. Or they might quit or change their jobs for other reasons, despite the negative impact on their kids. To protect against this type of behavior, in some cases judges in Tennessee may calculate child support based on a parent's potential ("imputed") income. We'll explain how that works.

What Is Imputed Income?

Imputed income means an amount of income that a judge believes a parent could potentially be earning, rather than the actual income that parent is (or isn't) reporting. When a judge finds that it's appropriate to use imputed income, the amount of potential income will go into the child support calculation. (More below on when and how imputed income is used.)

When Will Tennessee Judges Impute Income to a Parent?

There are three situations when judges in Tennessee may use imputed income in calculating child support:

• when parents are voluntarily or willfully unemployed or underemployed
• when parents haven't provided reliable evidence of their income, and
• when parents own substantial assets that aren't currently producing income.

(Tenn. Dept. of Human Svcs. Rules, rule 1240-2-4-.04(2)(i) (2025).)

What Counts as Voluntary or Willful Unemployment or Underemployment?

Judges won't punish parents who legitimately can't earn more income or find a job. But judges will look at the reasons behind parents' choices about their work–and whether those choices are reasonable in light of their responsibility to provide for their children. Unlike in many other states, the reason for the voluntary unemployment or underemployment doesn't matter in Tennessee. Even if a parent isn't trying to avoid paying child support or reduce those payments, the judge may use imputed income when that parent has made any intentional choice that lowers their income.

This means, for example, that a judge won't calculate child support based on your potential income when:

• you've been laid off and are diligently looking for another job
• your income has gone down due to a medical condition or disability, or
• you've enlisted or been activated for full-time service in the military.

Also, a parent's incarceration isn't considered voluntary unemployment or underemployment. Any income the parent actually earns while in prison will be counted for the child support calculation.

However, the judge may use imputed income when you've quit a high-paying job in favor of lower-paying work that offers you a better schedule or more creative outlets.

When judges in Tennessee are deciding whether a parent is voluntarily or willfully unemployed or underemployed, they'll consider all of the relevant circumstances, including:

• the parent's employment history
• the parent's education, job training, and ability to work
• whether the parent has an "extravagant" lifestyle (including valuable assets like an expensive home or car) that don't match their reported income
• whether a parent is temporarily unemployed to get additional education or training that will eventually benefit the child, and
• whether the parent can't work outside the home because they're caring for a child or other seriously ill or disabled relative.

In the case of a parent who's caring full-time for children who aren't seriously ill or disabled, judges will consider the children's age, whether the parent played that role during the marriage, and how long the parent stayed out of the workforce for that reason.

(Tenn. Dept. of Human Svcs. Rules, rule 1240-2-4-.04(2)(ii), (iii) (2025).)

How Do Tennessee Judges Calculate Imputed Income?

Depending on the reason for imputing income when calculating child support, Tennessee has different rules for deciding how much income to impute to a parent.

Imputing Income When a Parent Is Voluntarily or Willfully Unemployed or Underemployed

Once a judge has decided that a parent is willfully or voluntarily unemployed or underemployed, the judge will calculate child support based on an amount of income that reflects that what that parent could be earning, based on the parent's:

• past and present employment, and
• education and training.

(Tenn. Dept. of Human Svcs. Rules, rule 1240-2-4-.04(2)(ii)(II) (2025).)

Imputing Income Without Evidence of Actual Income

You can't escape paying child support just by refusing to show proof of your income. If your child's other parent will not disclose their income, you may submit evidence showing what they earn, such as pay stubs, bank statements, or tax returns.

However, when there's no reliable evidence of a parent's income, the judge will impute an amount of income, using one of the following methods:

• With the initial child support calculation, the judge will impute an amount equal to the median full-time income in Tennessee (which was $47,361 for fathers and $35,936 for mothers, as of the guidelines effective in 2021). A parent can ask the court to recalculate child support by producing reliable evidence of income at a later date.
• When modifying an existing child support order, the judge will usually start with the parent's income that was used in the last calculation and then increase it by at least 10% a year for each year since the existing order was issued or last modified.

(Tenn. Dept. of Human Svcs. Rules, rule 1240-2-4-.04(2)(iv) (2025).)

Imputing Income Based on Assets

Resources and Help With Imputed Income

You can find the links to the full text of the current child support guidelines—as well as the state's official child support calculator and answers to common questions, and other useful information—on the Tennessee Child Support Guidelines page.

However, if you believe that your child's other parent isn't earning as much as they could—or you're the one being accused of suppressing your income—you should strongly consider speaking with a lawyer. Judges have considerable leeway when they make these decisions, but they'll need to see reliable evidence to support their decisions. An experienced Tennessee family law attorney can help you prepare the evidence you'll need to convince a judge that this is (or isn't) an appropriate case for using imputed income when calculating child support and to establish how much potential income should go into the child support calculation.