Statutes: South Dakota

The child support obligation must be established in accordance with the following schedule subject to the revisions or deviations as permitted by this chapter. Except as provided in this chapter, the combined monthly net incomes of both parents must be used in determining the obligation to be divided proportionately between the parents based upon their respective net incomes. The noncustodial parent’s proportionate share establishes the amount of the child support order.

The emboldened areas of the schedule include a self-support reserve of eight hundred seventy-one dollars per month that accounts for the subsistence needs of the obligated parent with a limited ability to pay. If the obligation using only the noncustodial parent’s monthly net income is an obligation within the emboldened areas of the schedule, that amount must be compared to the noncustodial parent’s proportionate share using both parents’ monthly net incomes. The lesser amount establishes the noncustodial parent’s child support order.

[Note from WomensLaw: The statute has a chart here that we cannot include; you can access it on the South Dakota Legislature’s website.]