Using the child support tables in your divorce
Parents who are getting a divorce in Canada, or parents who already have their divorce, must adhere to the federal child maintenance guidelines when determining their financial responsibility for their children. Before the guidelines became law in 1997 it was harder to know what a court would decide was a fair amount child support. Because of this uncertainty there were more disputes and more cases went to trial. Now, all you usually need to do is look at the guidelines to determine the proper child support amount.
The most crucial and most helpful aspects of the guidelines are child support tables. Usually, all you have to do is to consult these tables to figure out just what the child support ought to be. Each province has a separate table. The one that you use will be determined by the ordinary residenceof the parent that is going to pay the support. If that parent happens to live in another country, you must use the provincial table that is based upon the residence of the parent who has custody.
Once you have chosen the appropriate provincial table it is just a simple process of cross indexing the number of children with the gross annual income of the parent paying support. This will show you exactly what the monthly child support amount should be. This will be the amount the court will expect you to agree upon unless you can show why a different amount would be more appropriate. If you want to use a different amount you have to explain why, using the rest of the guidelines as a guide. Just because both parents agree to a different amount will not be considered an adequate explanation. If the court is not satisfied that your amount is supported by the guidelines, the court will impose an amount it believes is more appropriate.
Some of the more common reasons for departing from the guideline table amount involve cases where the child care arrangement is more complex than usual. Typically one parent is the primary care-giver and the other parent enjoys access visits with the children according to a fixed schedule or by a more flexible arrangement. The guideline table amount is best suited for these situations.
The exception is made when there is shared parenting, the children spend approximately the same amount of time with each parent, or when the kids are split between the two parents. In these situations the most common thing to do is to figure out what each parent should pay the other according to the tables and then subtract the two figures with the parent owing the most paying the difference to the other.
Other instances that merit exceptions are cases where the parent with access has high costs (such as extensive transportation expenses) and has a standard of living which is less than that of the other parent.
As a general rule of thumb, child support must be paid for any child that has not reached the age of majority, as well as for any child who is attending college full time, particularly if the parents have agreed to pay for the schooling.
The result is that the guidelines have made things easier. But there are still some situations which warrant exceptions to the table amounts.