child support

The law is different depending upon whether your children are children of a marriage or not. For divorcing parents, we look to the federal Divorce Act and the Federal Child Support Guidelines for guidance. For unmarried parents, Alberta’s Family Law Act and Alberta Child Support Guidelines apply. There are important differences between the legislation – how long child support is payable, for example. Complications can arise where there is a shared parenting arrangement, where one or both parents have incomes over $150,000 or are self-employed, or when someone is behind on their child support payments.

Once financial disclosure has been exchanged, we can calculate each party’s income. T4 employees are the easiest to do, as we can just look at their tax information to determine their income. However, if they do not report cash jobs or tips on their tax return, this can lead to complications. Special considerations must also be given to self-employed individuals. For example, expenses that may be legitimately claimed on their tax returns may need to be re-examined for the purposes of determining their income for child support.

Section 7 expenses are not included in the base child support and are typically shared proportionately based on both parents’ incomes. Section 7 expenses may include the following:

•  child care expenses incurred as a result of the custodial parent’s employment, illness, disability or education or training for employment;

• that portion of the medical and dental insurance premiums attributable to the child;

• health-related expenses that exceed insurance reimbursement by at least $100 annually, including orthodontic treatment, professional counselling provided by a psychologist, social worker, psychiatrist or any other person, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and prescription drugs, hearing aids, glasses and contact lenses;

• extraordinary expenses for primary or secondary school education or for any other educational programs that meet the child’s particular needs;

• expenses for post-secondary education; and

• extraordinary expenses for extracurricular activities.