Ohio Rev. Code § 3119.01 (2026)

(A) As used in the Revised Code, "child support enforcement agency" means a child support enforcement agency designated under former section 2301.35 of the Revised Code prior to October 1, 1997, or a private or government entity designated as a child support enforcement agency under section 307.981 of the Revised Code.

(B) As used in this chapter and Chapters 3121., 3123., and 3125. of the Revised Code:

(1) "Administrative child support order" means any order issued by a child support enforcement agency for the support of a child pursuant to section 3109.19 or 3111.81 of the Revised Code or former section 3111.211 of the Revised Code, section 3111.21 of the Revised Code as that section existed prior to January 1, 1998, or section 3111.20 or 3111.22 of the Revised Code as those sections existed prior to March 22, 2001.

(2) "Child support order" means either a court child support order or an administrative child support order.

(3) "Obligee" means the person who is entitled to receive the support payments under a support order.

(4) "Obligor" means the person who is required to pay support under a support order.

(5) "Support order" means either an administrative child support order or a court support order.

(C) As used in this chapter:

(1) "Caretaker" means any of the following, other than a parent:

(a) A person with whom the child resides for at least thirty consecutive days, and who is the child's primary caregiver;

(b) A person who is receiving public assistance on behalf of the child;

(c) A person or agency with legal custody of the child, including a county department of job and family services or a public children services agency;

(d) A guardian of the person or the estate of a child;

(e) Any other appropriate court or agency with custody of the child.

"Caretaker" excludes a "host family" as defined under section 2151.90 of the Revised Code.

(2) "Cash medical support" means an amount ordered to be paid in a child support order toward the ordinary medical expenses incurred during a calendar year.

(3) "Child care cost" means annual out-of-pocket costs for the care and supervision of a child or children subject to the order that is related to work or employment training.

(4) "Court child support order" means any order issued by a court for the support of a child pursuant to Chapter 3115. of the Revised Code, section 2151.23, 2151.231, 2151.232, 2151.33, 2151.36, 2151.361, 2151.49, 3105.21, 3109.05, 3109.19, 3109.20, 3111.13, 3113.04, 3113.07, 3113.31, 3119.11, 3119.65, or 3119.70 of the Revised Code, or division (B) of former section 3113.21 of the Revised Code.

(5) "Court-ordered parenting time" means the amount of parenting time a parent is to have under a parenting time order or the amount of time the children are to be in the physical custody of a parent under a shared parenting order.

(6) "Court support order" means either a court child support order or an order for the support of a spouse or former spouse issued pursuant to Chapter 3115. of the Revised Code, section 3105.18, 3105.65, or 3113.31 of the Revised Code, or division (B) of former section 3113.21 of the Revised Code.

(7) "CPI-U" means the consumer price index for all urban consumers, published by the United States department of labor, bureau of labor statistics.

(8) "Extraordinary medical expenses" means any uninsured medical expenses incurred for a child during a calendar year that exceed the total cash medical support amount owed by the parents during that year.

(9) "Federal poverty level" has the same meaning as in section 5121.30 of the Revised Code.

(10) "Income" means either of the following:

(a) For a parent who is employed to full capacity, the gross income of the parent;

(b) For a parent who is unemployed or underemployed, the sum of the gross income of the parent and any potential income of the parent.

(11) "Income share" means the percentage derived from a comparison of each parent's annual income after allowable deductions and credits as indicated on the worksheet to the total annual income of both parents.

(12) "Insurer" means any person authorized under Title XXXIX of the Revised Code to engage in the business of insurance in this state, any health insuring corporation, and any legal entity that is self-insured and provides benefits to its employees or members.

(13) "Gross income" means, except as excluded in division (C)(13) of this section, the total of all earned and unearned income from all sources during a calendar year, whether or not the income is taxable, and includes income from salaries, wages, overtime pay, and bonuses to the extent described in division (D) of section 3119.05 of the Revised Code; commissions; royalties; tips; rents; dividends; severance pay; pensions; interest; trust income; annuities; social security benefits, including retirement, disability, and survivor benefits that are not means-tested; workers' compensation benefits; unemployment insurance benefits; disability insurance benefits; benefits that are not means-tested and that are received by and in the possession of the veteran who is the beneficiary for any service-connected disability under a program or law administered by the United States department of veterans' affairs or veterans' administration; spousal support actually received; and all other sources of income. "Gross income" includes income of members of any branch of the United States armed services or national guard, including, amounts representing base pay, basic allowance for quarters, basic allowance for subsistence, supplemental subsistence allowance, cost of living adjustment, specialty pay, variable housing allowance, and pay for training or other types of required drills; self-generated income; and potential cash flow from any source.

"Gross income" does not include any of the following:

(a) Benefits received from means-tested government administered programs, including Ohio works first; prevention, retention, and contingency; means-tested veterans' benefits; supplemental security income; supplemental nutrition assistance program; disability financial assistance; or other assistance for which eligibility is determined on the basis of income or assets;

(b) Benefits for any service-connected disability under a program or law administered by the United States department of veterans' affairs or veterans' administration that are not means-tested, that have not been distributed to the veteran who is the beneficiary of the benefits, and that are in the possession of the United States department of veterans' affairs or veterans' administration;

(c) Child support amounts received for children who are not included in the current calculation;

(d) Amounts paid for mandatory deductions from wages such as union dues but not taxes, social security, or retirement in lieu of social security;

(e) Nonrecurring or unsustainable income or cash flow items;

(f) Adoption assistance, kinship guardianship assistance, and foster care maintenance payments made pursuant to Title IV-E of the "Social Security Act," 94 Stat. 501, 42 U.S.C.A. 670 (1980), as amended;

(g) State kinship guardianship assistance described in section 5153.163 of the Revised Code and payment from the kinship support program described in section 5180.531 of the Revised Code.

(14) "Nonrecurring or unsustainable income or cash flow item" means an income or cash flow item the parent receives in any year or for any number of years not to exceed three years that the parent does not expect to continue to receive on a regular basis. "Nonrecurring or unsustainable income or cash flow item" does not include a lottery prize award that is not paid in a lump sum or any other item of income or cash flow that the parent receives or expects to receive for each year for a period of more than three years or that the parent receives and invests or otherwise uses to produce income or cash flow for a period of more than three years.

(15) "Ordinary medical expenses" includes copayments and deductibles, and uninsured medical-related costs for the children of the order.

(16)(a) "Ordinary and necessary expenses incurred in generating gross receipts" means actual cash items expended by the parent or the parent's business and includes depreciation expenses of business equipment as shown on the books of a business entity.

(b) Except as specifically included in "ordinary and necessary expenses incurred in generating gross receipts" by division (C)(16)(a) of this section, "ordinary and necessary expenses incurred in generating gross receipts" does not include depreciation expenses and other noncash items that are allowed as deductions on any federal tax return of the parent or the parent's business.

(17) "Personal earnings" means compensation paid or payable for personal services, however denominated, and includes wages, salary, commissions, bonuses, draws against commissions, profit sharing, vacation pay, or any other compensation.

(18) "Potential income" means both of the following for a parent who the court pursuant to a court support order, or a child support enforcement agency pursuant to an administrative child support order, determines is voluntarily unemployed or voluntarily underemployed:

(a) Imputed income that the court or agency determines the parent would have earned if fully employed as determined from the following criteria:

(i) The parent's prior employment experience;

(ii) The parent's education;

(iii) The parent's physical and mental disabilities, if any;

(iv) The availability of employment in the geographic area in which the parent resides;

(v) The prevailing wage and salary levels in the geographic area in which the parent resides;

(vi) The parent's special skills and training;

(vii) Whether there is evidence that the parent has the ability to earn the imputed income;

(viii) The age and special needs of the child for whom child support is being calculated under this section;

(ix) The parent's increased earning capacity because of experience;

(x) The parent's decreased earning capacity because of a felony conviction;

(xi) Any other relevant factor.

(b) Imputed income from any nonincome-producing assets of a parent, as determined from the local passbook savings rate or another appropriate rate as determined by the court or agency, not to exceed the rate of interest specified in division (A) of section 1343.03 of the Revised Code, if the income is significant.

(19) "Schedule" means the basic child support schedule created pursuant to section 3119.021 of the Revised Code.

(20) "Self-generated income" means gross receipts received by a parent from self-employment, proprietorship of a business, joint ownership of a partnership or closely held corporation, and rents minus ordinary and necessary expenses incurred by the parent in generating the gross receipts. "Self-generated income" includes expense reimbursements or in-kind payments received by a parent from self-employment, the operation of a business, or rents, including company cars, free housing, reimbursed meals, and other benefits, if the reimbursements are significant and reduce personal living expenses.

(21) "Self-sufficiency reserve" means the minimal amount necessary for an obligor to adequately subsist upon, as determined under section 3119.021 of the Revised Code.

(22) "Split parental rights and responsibilities" means a situation in which there is more than one child who is the subject of an allocation of parental rights and responsibilities and each parent is the residential parent and legal custodian of at least one of those children.

(23) "Worksheet" means the applicable worksheet created in rules adopted under section 3119.022 of the Revised Code that is used to calculate a parent's child support obligation.