5,310
edits
Changes
→The law about child support
===How is the amount of child support calculated?===
Child support is determined by the [[Child Support Guidelines]], which you read about in the [[Child Support]] chapter of this resource. Most of the time, child support is easy to figure out: you just look up the amount payable in the tables attached to the Guidelines based on the income of the ''payor'', the person paying child support, and the number of children support is being paid for. Calculating child support can get more complicated when:
#a child is 19 or older;
#the payor has an income of more than $150,000 per year;
#the payor is a stepparent;
#the payor is self-employed or has other sources of income that can be complicated to figure out;
#one or more children live mostly with each spouse;
#the spouses share the children’s time equally or almost equally; or,
#the payment of the table amount would cause "undue hardship" to either the payor or the spouse receiving child support, the ''recipient''.
More information about how child support is calculated is available in the [[Child Support]] chapter, particularly in the sections on the [[Child Support Guidelines|Guidelines]] and the [[Exceptions_to_the_Child_Support_Guidelines|Exceptions to the Guidelines]].
===How is child support paid?===
Most of the time, child support is paid every month, usually on the first day of the month. It is possible for child support to be paid in a single lump sum, but this is very, very rare. Payors can be required to pay by giving the recipient a series of post-dated cheques.
However child support gets paid, it's important for the payor to keep a record of how much was paid and when it was paid, perhaps from receipts provided by the recipient, from cancelled cheques, or from bank statementsor from e-transfer acknowledgements. This can help prevent arguments about whether a payment was late or missed altogether.
===Are there tax consequences?===