Updated for 2026 guidelines
Indiana Child Support Arrears Calculator 2026
Indiana arrears interest is a trick question. By default, unpaid Indiana child support accrues no interest at all. But on request, a court may order up to 1.5 percent per month, an 18 percent yearly ceiling that ranks among the highest in the country. Which number applies to you depends on a court order, not a statute running in the background.
Reviewed by SupportDecode Editorial Team Page content reviewed Sources Methodology Update log
Check an Indiana arrears balance
Estimated arrears with interest: $5,000.00
Interest of $0.00 under IC 31-16-12-2 (discretionary interest up to 1.5 percent per month on request).
| Line item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Arrears principalIC 31-16-12-2 (arrears interest: the court MAY, on request, order not more than 1.5 percent per month on delinquent child support; discretionary, not automatic) (Indiana General Assembly (iga.in.gov)) | $5,000.00 |
| Interest not computed: no verified numeric rate (IC 31-16-12-2 (discretionary interest up to 1.5 percent per month on request))Indiana child support arrears do not accrue interest automatically. On request of the person or agency entitled to the payments, a court MAY order interest of up to 1.5 percent per month (an 18 percent per year ceiling, one of the highest potential arrears rates in the country) under IC 31-16-12-2, but the rate is whatever the court sets, and courts often order none. Whether accrual under such an order is simple or compounding is not specified in the section text: official-confirmation-required. If arrears are instead reduced to a money judgment, the general 8 percent judgment rate of IC 24-4.6-1-101 can apply to that judgment. This tool computes no interest without a court order to point to.IC 31-16-12-2 (arrears interest: the court MAY, on request, order not more than 1.5 percent per month on delinquent child support; discretionary, not automatic) (Indiana General Assembly (iga.in.gov)) | $0.00 |
| Arrears principal plus interestIC 31-16-12-2 (arrears interest: the court MAY, on request, order not more than 1.5 percent per month on delinquent child support; discretionary, not automatic) (Indiana General Assembly (iga.in.gov)) | $5,000.00 |
Assumptions
- Accrual period expressed as 12 month(s); partial months prorate.
- No verified numeric interest rate for this state; interest shown as 0 and the result is an estimate of principal only.
Estimate only. The court or state agency calculation controls.
Indiana arrears interest under IC 31-16-12-2 (discretionary interest up to 1.5 percent per month on request); rules last reviewed 2026-08-08.
How arrears work in Indiana
Arrears are support installments that came due and went unpaid. In Indiana each missed weekly payment becomes a fixed judgment as it falls due, the Title IV-D system tracks the ledger for enforcement cases, and the balance grows only by new missed payments unless a court has said otherwise.
The "otherwise" is IC 31-16-12-2. The section says the court MAY, on a request by the person or agency entitled to the payments, order interest charges of not more than one and one-half percent per month on delinquent child support. Read the qualifiers: may, on request, not more than. Nothing accrues on its own, nobody has to ask, the judge does not have to grant it, and the rate can be anything from a token figure up to the 1.5 percent monthly ceiling.
That ceiling is severe. At the full 1.5 percent per month, a $10,000 arrears balance would grow by about $150 in its first month, an 18 percent nominal yearly pace that outruns nearly every automatic-interest state. In practice courts order it sparingly, which is why the honest default this tool computes is zero, with the ceiling explained rather than assumed.
A separate statute, IC 24-4.6-1-101, sets the general judgment interest rate at 8 percent per year. It can matter when arrears are separately reduced to a money judgment outside the child support interest mechanism. Which rate governs in that posture is case-law territory, so this page names the scenario without computing it.
No automatic interest does not mean no enforcement. Indiana collects arrears through income withholding at the federal maximums, tax refund interception, license suspension, and contempt, and a support withholding order outranks ordinary creditor garnishments regardless of which came first.
- Interest by default
- None. No Indiana statute makes support arrears accrue interest automaticallysource
- Interest by order
- Up to 1.5% per month (18%/year ceiling), discretionary and request-requiredsource
- Statute
- IC 31-16-12-2: "may... order interest charges of not more than" 1.5% monthlysource
- Judgment-rate sidebar
- IC 24-4.6-1-101: 8% per year on money judgments, a separate mechanismsource
How to use this estimate
Enter the unpaid principal and the months it has been outstanding. Because no Indiana interest runs without a court order, the tool reports the principal as the balance and attaches the statutory explanation, including the 1.5 percent monthly ceiling a court could impose on request.
Then check your own paperwork. If a court has already ordered interest on your arrears under IC 31-16-12-2, the order itself states the rate, and that order, not this page, defines your balance. If you are the parent owed support, the same section is a lever: interest must be requested, so unrequested interest is simply money the statute allowed and nobody claimed.
For an official balance, ask the clerk or the Title IV-D office for an account statement. Their ledger reflects payments, interceptions, and any ordered interest this single-number estimate cannot.
What this estimate includes
- The arrears principal you enter, reported without invented interest
- The statutory story: discretionary, request-required interest capped at 1.5% per month
- The 8 percent money-judgment sidebar, named and cited so you can spot it in your paperwork
What it leaves out
- Interest arithmetic under an existing IC 31-16-12-2 order, which runs at whatever rate that order sets
- Whether ordered interest accrues simple or compounding, which the section text does not specify
- Payment histories, intercepted refunds, and ledger adjustments in the IV-D system
- Interest another state added before a case transferred to Indiana; registered debt survives the move
Indiana arrears FAQs
Does Indiana charge interest on child support arrears?
Not automatically. No Indiana statute makes unpaid support grow interest on its own, so an untouched arrears balance is just the sum of the missed payments. The twist is IC 31-16-12-2: on a request by the person or agency owed the support, a court may order interest of up to 1.5 percent per month. Ordered interest is real; assumed interest is not.
How high can Indiana arrears interest go?
Up to 1.5 percent per month, an 18 percent nominal yearly ceiling, which would be one of the harshest arrears rates in the nation if it ran everywhere. It does not run anywhere by itself: the rate applies only when a court orders it, only from an eligible request, and judges can and do pick lower figures or decline entirely.
Where does the 8 percent figure come from?
A different statute. IC 24-4.6-1-101 sets interest on ordinary money judgments at the agreed contract rate capped at 8 percent, or 8 percent per year absent a contract. Some sources wrongly quote it as the child support arrears rate. It matters only if arrears are separately reduced to a money judgment, and how the two mechanisms interact in that posture is decided case by case.
I am owed support. How do I actually get interest added?
Ask for it. The statute conditions interest on a request by the person or agency entitled to the payments, so raise it in your enforcement or contempt filing and propose a rate up to 1.5 percent per month. The court has full discretion on whether to grant it and at what rate, and interest generally runs from the order forward, not retroactively by default.
Can Indiana arrears be forgiven or reduced?
Each installment becomes a judgment as it falls due, and modification cannot reach back before the filing of a petition, so vested arrears do not quietly disappear. Money owed to the other parent is theirs to compromise or not. State-owed arrears from public assistance cases can sometimes be reduced through agency debt-reduction arrangements, which are discretionary programs, not entitlements.
How does Indiana enforce arrears if interest is usually zero?
Directly against the principal. Income withholding can take up to the federal CCPA maximums from disposable earnings, 55 to 65 percent once arrears are twelve weeks old. Add state and federal tax refund interception, driver and professional license suspension, passport denial, credit bureau reporting, and contempt, which can carry jail for willful nonpayment. The absence of automatic interest does not make the debt safe to ignore.
Official sources
Official sources last verified: .
- IC 31-16-12-2 (arrears interest: the court MAY, on request, order not more than 1.5 percent per month on delinquent child support; discretionary, not automatic)
Indiana General Assembly (iga.in.gov) Last checked
- IC 24-4.6-1-101 (interest on money judgments: agreed contract rate capped at 8 percent, or 8 percent per year absent contract; the rate that reaches arrears only when reduced to a money judgment)
Indiana General Assembly (iga.in.gov) Last checked
- IC 24-4.5-5-105 (limitation on garnishment: support orders at the federal CCPA tiers 50/55/60/65 percent; 25 percent ordinary-creditor cap; support withholding priority)
Indiana General Assembly (iga.in.gov) Last checked
Reviewed by SupportDecode Editorial Team Page content reviewed Sources Methodology Update log
Changelog: page first published with the no-automatic-interest rule and the 1.5 percent monthly discretionary ceiling. Material changes are dated in the update log.