The amounts in the tables are a starting point. In many cases, children may have special expenses. The guidelines define special expenses as expenses that are: necessary because they are in a childs best interests, and reasonable in relation to the means of the parents and of the child and consistent with the familys spending patterns prior to the separation. You and the other parent may agree on how to divide payment for special expenses and may agree that an amount should be added to the basic child support amount in the table. In your agreement you can even list special expenses that you expect to incur years later. For example, you may wish to arrange for paying uninsured dental expenses, day care and contributions towards university tuition. You can consider special expenses when you set child support amounts in sole custody or split custody arrangements. Special expenses are: child-care expenses that a parent with whom the child lives incurs as a result of the parents job, illness, disability or educational requirements for employment, the portion of a parents medical and dental insurance premiums that provides coverage for the child, the childs health-care needs over and above that covered by insurance (for example, orthodontics, counselling, medication, eye care and other items) that exceed $100 per year, the childs extraordinary expenses for extracurricular activities, the childs extraordinary expenses for primary and secondary education or other educational programs, and, the childs expenses for post-secondary education. The term extraordinary expenses means: expenses that are higher than those that the parent requesting an amount for the extraordinary expenses can reasonably cover, in light of that parents income (including the child support amount), or expenses that arent higher than those that the parent requesting an amount for the extraordinary expenses can reasonably cover, but that are extraordinary taking into account: the income (including child support) of that parent, the nature and number of the programs and extracurricular activities, any special needs and talents of the child, the overall cost of the programs and activities, and any other similar factor that is relevant. You and the other parent are free to decide if a special expense is reasonable and necessary and how much each of you will contribute to them. As a general rule, you will share in the special expense in proportion to your incomes, but you may agree to any other arrangement. Worksheet 2 at the back of this booklet can help you calculate special expenses. If you cannot agree about special expenses If you cannot agree on which special expenses are reasonable and necessary or how to pay for them, either of you may ask a judge to decide, or ask a third party, such as a lawyer or a mediator to help you. Special expenses example (sole custody) Michelle and Patrick agree that a day-care “net” expense of $450 a month is necessary. (The amount is “net” because they must consider the tax deduction Patrick will receive for child-care expenses, and the increase he will receive in the National Child Benefit.) They also agree that a sum must be added to the support amount of $926 that Michelle pays. Because parents normally divide the cost of the expense in proportion to their respective incomes, Michelle and Patrick calculate how much of the $450 in day-care expenses each parent will pay. They first calculate the total income of both parents by adding both their incomes ($50,000 plus $40,000 = $90,000). Then, to find out how much Michelle would pay, they would divide Michelles income by the total income and multiply the result by the expense amount. $50,000 divided by $90,000, multiplied by $450, equals Michelles share of the expense: $50,000 ÷ $90,000 × $450 = $250 Patricks share will be the difference between Michelles share and the total expense. Therefore, Michelle would pay $250 and Patrick would contribute $200 to cover the total expense of $450. Michelles $250 for child care expenses would be added to the table amount of support of $926 for a total amount of child support of $1,176 per month.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 16:48:54 +0000
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