Even after divorce, both parents have a legal duty to support their children
financially.
Once you have worked out the residential arrangements for your children, you
will need to look at the payment of child support. Before granting a divorce,
the judge must be satisfied that appropriate financial arrangements have been
made.
You will use a set of rules and tables, called child support guidelines, to
help you figure out the amount of child support. The federal government has
produced a number of publications to help you calculate child support.
Who pays child support depends on the child's residential arrangements. The
basic amount is based on three things:
| · |
the
paying parent's income; |
| · |
the
number of children involved; and |
| · |
the
province or territory where the paying parent lives. |
In
some circumstances, the base amount can be increased or decreased.
For example, the amount could be adjusted if the children have special
expenses, such as childcare. The amount could also be adjusted to prevent
financial hardship for a parent or the children. This might be fair
when, for example, the parent paying the child support is suffering
a hardship—perhaps because that parent is supporting a new family
and has a lower standard of living than the parent receiving the child
support.
| · |
The
person who receives the child support payments does not have
to list them as income on his or her income tax form. |
| · |
The
person paying the child support cannot deduct the support payments
from his or her income. |
At Russell Alexander,
Family Lawyers our focus is exclusively family law. To find out more
about our services, we invite you to contact
us or call the firm at 1.866.647.6335
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