What percentage of your income do you have to pay in child support?

Under the Child Support Guidelines, the percentage of income that is payable in child support is dependent upon the parenting time that is allocated to each party, number of children as well as the incomes of each party.  You can use our Child Support Calculator to calculate the amount that may be payable from one parent to the other.

Is child support mandatory in Canada?

Generally, child support is mandatory to provide financial means for the care of the children. In fact, the legislation imposes a duty on parents and guardians to provide support for their children (Family Law Act, s. 147(1)).

However, there are a few circumstances when child support is not mandatory as follows:

• No child support is payable in British Columbia when the income of the paying spouse is under $12,000.
• Child support may not be payable when a child is living primarily with a spouse who has substantial means to support the child and does not wish to receive support from the other parent.
• Other circumstances in which child support is not mandatory is specified in the law respecting child support. Specifically, section 147 of the Family Law Act stipulates that child support is not payable when the child is (a) a spouse, or (b) under 19 years of age and has voluntarily withdrawn from his or her parents’ or guardians’ charge, except if the child withdrew because of family violence or because the child’s circumstances were, considered objectively, intolerable.

Do you still have to pay child support if you have 50 50 custody?

In a shared custody (where the child lives with each parent for at least 40% of the time, over the course of a year), both parents will have to pay each other child support. There are two possible scenarios in this case:

• When the incomes of both parents in a shared parenting arrangement is exactly the same, this results in each parent paying the same amount of child support to the other:

For example, if the child lives 45% of the time over the year with you and the other 55% with your spouse and you both earn $60,000 annually, then both of you will be paying $567 in child support to the other parent. However, in actuality, since the amount paid by each parent to the other is the same, there is no extra payment by either party in support as both amounts are set-off against each other.

Please note that while it may seem redundant for the parties to make the payments in the same amount to each other, it may be necessary to do so in order to qualify for certain tax credits with the Canada Revenue Agency.

• When the incomes of both parents in a shared parenting arrangement are not exactly the same, this results in extra payment in support to the lesser earning parent:

For example, if you earn $80,000 and you have shared custody of one child, you would pay $765 to your spouse. Under the same parenting arrangement, if your spouse earns $60,000, the amount that your spouse would pay you is $567. The payments by each parent to the other are set-off against each other, resulting in the lesser earning parent (with $60,000 income) earning $198 extra in support payments.

What is covered in child support?

The Federal Child Support Guidelines calculates Child support as a base amount of support depending on the payer’s income, which covers general support for the child. Other than the base child support amounts there is also special or extraordinary expenses, which are not included in the base amount of child support. These amounts of extraordinary expenses also known as section 7 expenses are listed on the Federal Child Support Guidelines as follows:

• “child-care expenses that you may have to pay as a result of a job, an illness, a disability, or educational requirements for employment if your child spends most of the time with you;
• the portion of your medical and dental insurance premiums that provides coverage for your child;
• your child’s health-care needs that exceed $100 per year if the cost is not covered by insurance (for example, orthodontics, counselling, medication or eye care);
• expenses for post-secondary education;
• extraordinary expenses for your child’s primary education, secondary education or any other educational programs that meet your child’s particular needs; and
• extraordinary expenses for your child’s extracurricular activities.”

The special or extraordinary expenses are usually shared between the parents in proportion to their respective incomes.

For example, for a parent earning $80,000 and the other parent earning $60,000, the extraordinary expenses would be divided by adding the two incomes together and dividing the total by the parties income to get the proportional amount ($80,000 + $60,000 = $140,000 / $80,000 = 57% and $140,000/$60,000 = 43%).

What is the average child support payment for one child?

There is no average child support payment for one child as child support is dependent on the parties’ incomes and the parenting arrangement. The base amount of child support is found in the Federal Child Support Guidelines tables for British Columbia.  There is also extraordinary expenses that would be incurred on behalf of the child that would not be part of the base amount of child support, but would be divided by the parents in proportion to their respective incomes.

We, at M.J. O’Nions Lawyer & Mediator, have succeeded in making and obtaining many favourable applications for child support and parenting arrangements. Give us a call at 604-449-7779 or email us. We are here to help.