Child support is the provincial and federally mandated legal requirement to provide payments from one separated married spouse, or unmarried partner, to the other for the support of a child or children that are in their direct care.
While being referred to as "guidelines" these are not optional, rather they represent the legal and mandatory requirement to pay child support. Married or unmarried couples need to pay child support in accordance with the Alberta Child Support Guidelines or federal Child Support Guidelines.
The Child Support Guidelines, whether federal or provincial, address different categories of child support, including what we refer to as "base" child support or section 3 child support, special and extraordinary expenses of a child (section 7 expenses), and the calculation of child support when parties have a shared parenting regime that includes 40% of parenting time taking place in each household.
Understanding how the calculation of child support occurs is essential for separating married spouses or unmarried partners. Without careful understanding and attention being paid to the circumstances of the parties, child support may be calculated incorrectly.
At its foundation, child support is based on one or both party's income, which can be more straight forward when each party is a ‘T4’ employee (has an employer and is paid as an employee of that company). However, even when dealing with T4 employees, there are components of income that can be treated differently.
Some components can be removed from the calculation of child support, others can be discounted in some form, and some can even be included and grossed-up in their value. Understanding the different treatment of each component is very important, and we work to empower clients in their knowledge of these circumstances.
The determination of child support is more complex in situations where individuals are self-employed or have corporations. For self-employed individuals, the income that they earn for tax purposes after expenses have been accounted for may not be the same determined income for child support purposes.
In kind, the income earned by an individual through a corporation may reflect a very different personal income than what is available in the corporation for calculating child support. Individuals often leave substantial income in corporations for tax planning purposes.
When there is self employment or a corporation there needs to be careful analysis completed so that a party can ensure that child support is accurate.
Essential to this process is the completion of fulsome financial disclosure. Without specific attention to this process, individuals can be left with inaccurate calculations of child support.
It is important that clients also understand the extent of special and extra-ordinary expenses (section 7 expenses), which are payable in addition to base (section 3) child support. Section 7 expenses include specific circumstances where parties share these costs proportionate to their incomes, or an agreed upon percentage sharing of expenses.
These section 7 expenses include:
Each of these expenses are determined by the specific circumstances of the parties, and specific requirements pursuant to the legislative framework and case law that has interpreted their parameters.
Finally, there may also be interjurisdictional factors that need to be considered when calculating child support, including across provinces and even outside of Canada.
At Family Central Law we regularly work with clients to craft a detailed plan and understanding of child support obligations and calculations.
When calculating child support for all applicable and even complex situations, once you reach out, we will work with you carefully to complete review of financial disclosure and provide you with child support calculations tailored to your situation. Kindly do not hesitate to reach out to discuss this matter by contacting our office for a free consultation by calling our office at 1-866-278-4187, or emailing info@familycentrallaw.com, or by clicking on our consultation page.
Our firm believes in access to legal services for everyone, and serves the Calgary area, as well as regularly traveling for court appearances in Red Deer, Edmonton, Fort McMurray, Medicine Hat, and Lethbridge.
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