After a divorce in Texas, a court may order that a non-custodial parent pay child support to the custodial parent. The purpose of these payments is to help pay for the child’s needs, such as food, clothing, housing, and medical care.
Typically, the custodial parent starts receiving child support payments after the court issues a child support order. However, you may be eligible for retroactive child support from the period before the order went into effect. If you have any more questions about retroactive child support in Texas, you can talk to a child support attorney in Austin.
What Is Retroactive Child Support?
Retroactive child support covers the period of time when the custodial parent needed support but before an official child support order existed. This type of child support means to pay custodial parents for the time during which they should have received payments but weren’t due to a lack of a formal agreement.
For instance, say your child was born in June 2025, but you do not make a child support agreement until June 2026. In this case, you may be able to request retroactive child support for the year-long period between when your child was born and when the court imposed a child support agreement.
How Retroactive Child Support Differs from Back Child Support
The terms retroactive child support and back child support often get used interchangeably, but they are different. Back child support refers to late child support payments that have gone unpaid under an existing order. A custodial parent can collect back child support, also called arrears, when the non-custodial parent misses scheduled child support payments. Courts can use several mechanisms to collect unpaid back child support, such as wage garnishment or property liens.
Retroactive child support, in contrast, is for a period when an order did not exist. These are not missed payments but allow custodial parents to recover expenses they incurred before they started receiving regular payments.
When Can Retroactive Child Support Be Ordered in Texas?
According to the Texas Family Code, a court can order a parent to pay retroactive child support if two conditions exist:
- The parent has not been ordered to pay child support, and
- The parent has not been a party in a suit involving child support.
If these two conditions are true, a judge can order retroactive child support payments at their discretion. When deciding whether to order retroactive child support, a judge will consider several factors, such as:
- The non-custodial parent’s current resources and economic situation
- Whether the custodial parent had informed the non-custodial parent of their obligation to support the child
- Whether the non-custodial parent provided any support in the past
- Whether retroactive child support would create undue financial hardship
Retroactive child support is common in situations where two parents never made a formal agreement about child support payments. They may have had a verbal agreement, or one parent promised to provide support and never did.
How Far Back Can You Receive Retroactive Child Support?
As a general rule, you can request retroactive child support for up to four years before you filed a request for child support. However, there may be some cases where you can get benefits from further back. If the non-custodial parent knew about their parentage, was evasive, and had the resources to pay but did not, the court may order retroactive payments going back further than four years.
How Does Texas Calculate Retroactive Child Support?
Texas calculates retroactive child support in the same way it calculates regular child support payments. Child support is typically calculated as a percentage of the non-custodial parent’s resources and based on how many children they share with the custodial parent. The main difference is that retroactive child support is based on the parent’s resources during the relevant time period rather than their current resources.
For instance, say the non-custodial parent earned $50,000 per year during the relevant period and earns $80,000 annually now. In this case, the court would use the $50,000 figure to calculate retroactive child support, not $80,000.
Courts also consider any non-child support payments the non-custodial parent made during that time. For instance, if the non-custodial parent made unofficial payments during the relevant period, it could offset retroactive child support payments. Ultimately, the law gives courts a fair bit of discretion when deciding retroactive child support amounts, and decides final awards on a case-by-case basis.
How to Request Retroactive Child Support
If you want to request retroactive child support, you will first have to file a petition with the court. In the petition, you will provide information regarding income and the child’s needs during the relevant period. Once the court accepts your petition, you will attend a hearing where you and your attorney can present evidence and arguments for the non-custodial parent’s obligation.
One challenging aspect of requesting retroactive child support is proving the child’s economic needs during the period under consideration. The relevant period may have been several years ago, making it more difficult to find records of expenses. As such, you should always keep records of important expenses related to childcare, such as clothing, food, housing, and medical care.
You can file for retroactive child support at any time up to the child’s 22nd birthday, but timely filing can increase your chances of a decision in your favor. An attorney can help with all aspects of filing a petition for retroactive child support, including gathering evidence of expenses and establishing proof of parental responsibility.
Contact Our Child Support Attorneys in Austin, TX
If you are currently pursuing retroactive child support payments or seeking to modify an existing child support order, contact the child support attorneys at Smith & Bledsoe Family Law. We understand how family law matters can cause tensions to rise and boil over. We can guide you through challenging times and help you pursue a favorable outcome.
Contact our offices online or call us today for a case consultation with a child support attorney in Austin, TX.