What is child support?
Generally, child support is money paid by the parent who spends less time with the child to the parent who takes care of the child most of the time. It does not matter if the parents are married.
Child support is usually made up of a basic amount for expenses and an amount for other expenses, called special or extraordinary expenses.
Table amount
Each province and territory has a Child Support Table. The Table shows the basic monthly amounts of child support to cover expenses like clothes, food, and school supplies. The basic amount is also called the table amount. It is based on the income of the person paying support and the number of children they have to support.
In some cases, the court will order child support that is based on a higher income than what your partner says they make. The court might do this if your partner earns income in cash that they do not report on their income taxes. This is called imputing income.
Special and extraordinary expenses
Your partner might also have to contribute toward special or extraordinary expenses. An expense may be a special or extraordinary expense if it is both:
- reasonable which means that you and your partner can afford it, and
- necessary for the child’s best interests. For example, the expense was part of your family’s spending pattern before you separated.
For example, if your child is in daycare, or has special needs, your partner might have to pay extra amounts of child support to contribute to these costs.
In most cases, you and your partner pay special expenses based on how much you earn. So, if both of you make roughly the same amount of money, you split the cost of special expenses equally.
If a child pays some of their own expenses, that amount is subtracted before the parents divide the expense.
Child support amounts
The amount of child support you receive can be affected by the amount of time the children are in your partner’s care. For example, in cases of shared parenting where you and your partner each have the child at least 40% of the time. Or in cases of split parenting where there is more than one child, and one child lives with you most of the time and the other child lives with your partner most of the time.
If the parent paying child support loses their job, they can ask to reduce child support. Or, if you know your partner’s income has increased, you can ask to increase child support.
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