How Alaska Calculates Child Support: A Plain-English Guide to Rule 90.3

Child support in Alaska is not negotiated from scratch or left to a judge's instinct. It comes out of a formula written into Alaska Civil Rule 90.3, and once you understand how that formula works, you can usually predict your number closely. Clients arrive at Chicklo Law Group braced for a fight over the amount and are often surprised to learn the real fight is over the inputs: what counts as income, how many overnights each parent actually has, and whether something unusual in the family's situation justifies departing from the standard result.

What does Alaska Civil Rule 90.3 actually do?

Rule 90.3 is the Alaska Supreme Court rule that sets child support in custody cases statewide. It converts a parent's income into a monthly obligation using fixed percentages, then adjusts for the custody schedule. Because it is a rule of civil procedure rather than a statute, the court system amends it, and the commentary published alongside the rule serves as the closest thing Alaska has to an official interpretation guide.

Support ordered under Rule 90.3 runs until a child turns 18. It extends to 19 if the child is unmarried, still pursuing a high school diploma or the equivalent, and living as a dependent.

How much child support will I pay in Alaska?

Under the primary custody formula, the paying parent owes 20 percent of adjusted annual income for one child, 27 percent for two, 33 percent for three, and another 3 percent for each additional child. The floor is $50 per month, which applies even to a parent with almost no income.

Adjusted annual income means gross income from all sources minus a defined list of deductions: income taxes owed, Social Security and Medicare or self-employment tax, mandatory retirement contributions, mandatory union dues, and support or alimony already being paid from an earlier relationship. Voluntary spending does not come off the top. A truck payment, a mortgage, credit card debt: none of it lowers the figure.

The rule also caps the income the standard formula runs on. Above that ceiling, a court needs specific findings to order more. That cap has been raised more than once, so read the current number directly from the rule rather than from an older article.

Does the Permanent Fund Dividend count as income?

Yes. The PFD counts as income for child support purposes, and it carries more weight here than most parents expect, since recent dividends have reached four figures. The Child Support Services Division can also intercept a dividend to collect arrears, and orders often specify which parent applies for the children's dividends and where that money goes.

What if we split custody close to evenly?

The shared custody calculation applies only when each parent has the children at least 30 percent of the year, meaning 110 overnights or more. Fall a few nights short and the primary custody percentages govern instead.

When it does apply, each parent's primary custody figure gets calculated, each is multiplied by the share of time the other parent has the children, the smaller result is subtracted from the larger, and the difference is multiplied by 1.5. That multiplier exists because two households cost more to run than one. This is why overnight counting turns contentious. A parenting plan drafted loosely, with alternating weekends and vague summer language, can leave a parent sitting just under the threshold without realizing it.

What if a parent quits a job or gets paid in cash?

Rule 90.3 permits a court to impute income to a parent who is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed, based on work history, education, and job openings actually available in that community. A fisherman reporting a thin season, a contractor paid partly under the table, a parent who leaves a Slope rotation for lower wages weeks before a hearing: judges recognize these patterns and can base support on earning capacity rather than reported earnings. Seasonal and variable income is typically averaged across two or three years so one unusual year does not skew the obligation.

When can a child support order be modified?

Either parent may move to modify at any time. A change of more than 15 percent from the existing order is treated as the material change in circumstances the rule requires. Modification generally reaches back only to the date the other parent was served with the motion, not to the date the circumstances actually changed. A parent who loses work in January but waits until September to file simply loses those months.

Who pays for insurance, medical bills, and travel?

These sit outside the base support amount. The court orders health coverage where it is available at reasonable cost, allocates medical expenses insurance does not cover, and can divide the cost of travel for visitation. That last piece matters more in Alaska than almost anywhere else, since a weekend with a parent in another community may mean airfare rather than a drive down the highway.

Running your own numbers with Chicklo Law Group

The formula is public and the arithmetic is manageable. What decides most cases is the quality of the record behind it: documented income, an honest overnight count, and a clear picture of what the children actually cost. Getting those pieces right at the start is far cheaper than litigating a modification two years later. If you are working through a custody or support question in Anchorage or elsewhere in the state, Chicklo Law Group can review your income documents and parenting schedule and tell you what the rule is likely to produce before you commit to anything.