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# That Was Then: Colorado's Rebuilt Child Support Statute
- URL: https://blog.denverdivorce.com/colorado-child-support-statute-changes-sb23-173/
- Published: 2026-09-21T14:00:58.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-21T14:00:57.000Z
- Description: One worksheet instead of two, the overnight cliff replaced by a curve, a guideline ceiling of $40,000 a month, and discretionary tax exemptions — what the rebuilt C.R.S. 14-10-115 means for high-income parents.
- Author: Aaron Herzberg
- Tags: Children, New Law

Colorado's child support statute, C.R.S. § 14-10-115, has been rebuilt over the last two legislative cycles — Senate Bill 23-173 and House Bill 25-1159, both following the Colorado Child Support Commission's recommendations. The changes are now in effect, and several of them matter a great deal to high-income parents.

## The overnight cliff is gone

The old system ran two worksheets: Worksheet A up to 92 overnights, Worksheet B from 93 — with a support cliff at the boundary that made the 93rd overnight worth real money and produced years of schedule-engineering litigation.

The new system uses **one worksheet and a continuous curve**. Parenting-time credit phases in smoothly with overnights: the credit lags the parenting-time percentage at lower levels, accelerates past roughly 27%, and catches up at 50/50\. No cliff, no magic number — and one less thing to fight about for the wrong reasons. With multiple children on different schedules, support now runs on a single methodology using the children's average overnights.

## The guideline ceiling rose to $40,000 a month

The guidelines previously topped out at $30,000 of combined monthly income; the schedule now extends to **$40,000 per month — $480,000 a year**. For high earners, that moves more territory from discretionary argument into the guideline table. Above the ceiling, the framework is unchanged: the amount at the top of the schedule is the presumptive floor, and anything above it rests on the court's discretion and the children's reasonable needs — which, for the families I represent, is where the actual case lives.

![The rebuilt statute at a glance: one worksheet, a $40,000 ceiling, evidence-based imputation, discretionary exemptions.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9c/7f/9c7f0f22-0ab1-4be3-88a9-68ce015e9524/content/images/2026/08/ig-child-support.png)

The rebuilt statute at a glance: one worksheet, a $40,000 ceiling, evidence-based imputation, discretionary exemptions.

## Imputation got more disciplined

When a parent is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed, courts determine potential income. The statute now points to evidence about the hours actually available in that parent's sector, and — absent reliable data — sets the default at a reasonable rate of pay for a **32-hour week, 50 weeks a year**, replacing the old 40/52 habit. Imputation fights now turn more on labor-market evidence and less on assumption.

## Dependency exemptions became discretionary

Courts previously allocated the right to claim children for tax purposes in proportion to each parent's contribution. The court now has **discretion**, guided by factors: each party's financial resources, whether a claimed exemption actually produces a tax benefit, and the interaction with other credits. Courts can also condition the right to claim a child on being current on support. For parents whose returns are complicated — phase-outs, credits, business income — this is worth modeling, not assuming.

## The practical point

Support orders entered under the old statute are not automatically recalculated — but the new law changes the arithmetic of any *modification*, and for some parents the new curve and ceiling move the number materially in one direction or the other. Before filing (or resisting) a modification, run the numbers under the current statute. The answer may surprise you either way.

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*Related on DenverDivorce.com:* [*Child Support*](https://denverdivorce.com/practice-areas/child-support.html?ref=blog.denverdivorce.com) *·* [*Modifications*](https://denverdivorce.com/practice-areas/modifications.html?ref=blog.denverdivorce.com) *·* [*Parenting Time*](https://denverdivorce.com/practice-areas/parenting-time.html?ref=blog.denverdivorce.com)