Calculation of child support requires a few steps.  Firstly, it must be determined what each parent’s income is.  Sometimes this is straight-forward, like when they work as an employee and have a set salary, sometimes it is more difficult to demine, like when they operate their own business.

Secondly, the Federal Child Support Guidelines (FCSG) are used to determine the monthly amount of child support based on that income and the number of children.  Child support is paid to a parent according to the FCSG only if that parent has primary residence.  This is referred to as Base Child Support, the Table Amount or Section 3 child support.

Thirdly, the parties must share reasonable and necessary Section 7 expenses, which are:

a)      Child care expense for employment, education, training, illness or disability purposes;

b)      Medical and Dental benefits premiums attributable to the children;

c)      Medical expenses exceeding more than $100.00 per incident per annum;

d)     Extraordinary expense for primary or secondary school education or for other educational programs that meet the child’s particular needs;

e)      Expenses for post-secondary education;

f)       Extraordinary expenses for extracurricular activities.

There are a number of factors that you must look at to determine if the expense is “extraordinary”.

Each parent’s percentage contribution is determined adding their incomes together and calculating each parent’s percentage of the total income.  For example, if the paying parent earns $40,000.00 and the other parent earns $60,000.00, than the paying parent may be required to pay 40% of these expenses to the other parent.

There are many ways to structure the calculation and payments of s. 7 expenses.  We will discuss with you your specific need and determine what the best method is for you.  Also, there are other extra expenses that the parents can agree to share.

Other factors affecting Child Support are:

o   If each parent has primary residence of at least one child;

o   If each parent has the children for over 40% of the time;

o   If the paying parent suffer from “Undue Hardship”.  There are specific tests that determine whether or not Undue Hardship exists.

o   When a paying parent earns more than $150,000.00 per annum;

o   When one or more children are over the age of 18 years.