Ronald J. Smith, QC
ph: 250-878-4716
1444 Alta Vista Rd., Kelowna, B.C. V1Y 6L1

Resolving your family law dispute: issues in child support

April 25th. 2014 Share on FacebookTweetEmail story
Share This Article

During a divorce, what are the issues in child support?

The courts and lawyers generally deal with resolution of family issues by dividing them into broad categories.  The categories are usually dealt with in the following order:

  1. Division of property;
  2. Parenting plan;
  3. Child support; and
  4. Spousal support.

I have talked about steps towards developing a parenting plan in my previous article. In my opinion, it is wise to deal with the children first, because so much of the rest of your resolution depends on what will happen with the children.

The first issue arising out of the parenting plan is child support. The Child Support Guidelines set out how much child support will be paid for the number of dependent children, based on the income of the person who pays (the payor). Issues can arise around the income of the payor, or whether or not a child is dependant.

The Child Support Guidelines also state that support payments may be adjusted if parenting is divided and where a parent has more than 40% of the care of the children. I am always reluctant to emphasize this point, because I sometimes suspect parties will fight for time with their children based on this formula.  At the end of the day, the best interests of your children should not depend on you paying more or less money to support them. When lawyers and courts suspect this problem they will often either ignore the 40% rule or adjust time spent with the children to achieve a just result.

Child support is intended to compensate the recipient for the normal day to day expenses of the children, such as clothes, school fees, and recreation activities. However, the law recognizes that there are expenses that go beyond the normal ones, and that both parents should share those based on their incomes. Those expenses, called “Extraordinary Expenses”, include such things as day care expenses, orthodontics, special educational or counseling needs, or special lessons. The list is flexible, and depends on a number of factors, but it is important to recognize that there is an obligation to share such expenses.

If you receive child support, you will not pay tax on it as income. If you pay child support, you will not be able to count the payments as a tax deduction. Child support is payable whether you are a man or a woman. It is based solely on where the children live, the number of children and the parents’ incomes. 

The principle behind The Child Support Guidelines is that children should benefit from the income of both parents, so even though a parent receiving child support is earning more than the parent paying it, The Child Support Guidelines table amounts apply.

There are many resources online to assist with determining child support:

Federal Child Support Guidelines: http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/sor-97-175/FullText.html, a http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/sor-97-175/FullText.htmlChild Support Calculator: https://www.fmep.gov.bc.ca/resources/maintenance-calculator/.

Child support is always open for review, based on your income and that of your former spouse. I tell people who are obligated to pay it to simply do so, and change the amount when their income changes. You don’t need a lawyer to explain your table obligations to pay child support.

 
Be The First to Leave a Comment
 
Email: (Your email will not be posted)
Comment
Human Check
(Please enter 20629)
 
RECENT POSTS
CATEGORIES
ARCHIVE