5,310
edits
Changes
→The law about child support
There are no tax consequences when child support is paid. The payor isn't allowed to deduct child support payments from the payor's taxable income, and the recipient isn't required to report child support payments as taxable income.
===What are special or extraordinary expenses?===
Section 7 of the [[Child Support Guidelines]] says that child support can include an extra amount to pay for children's "special or extraordinary expenses," on top of the table amount. ''Special expenses'' are the costs incurred on behalf of a child for things like daycare, medical insurance premiums, health expenses and the costs of going to college or university. ''Extraordinary expenses'' include public school costs and the cost of extracurricular activities, like sports teams, art classes or music lessons.
When a child has expenses that qualify as special or extraordinary expenses, both spouses contribute to paying the ''net cost'' of those expenses, once things like bursaries, subsidies and tax deductions are taken out of the cost. The spouses' contributions are calculated in proportion to their incomes. Here's an example of how that works:
<blockquote>Say that Spouse A has an income of $30,000 per year and Spouse B has an income of $20,000. Together, their total income is $50,000. Spouse A's income makes up 60% of their total income while Spouse B's income makes up the remaining 40%. Spouse A would then pay for 60% of the net cost of the child's qualifying special or extraordinary expenses — whether Spouse A is the payor or recipient of child support — while Spouse B would pay the other 40% of those expenses.</blockquote>
Special or extraordinary expenses are usually paid on a monthly basis, at the same time as the payor's payment of the table amount of child support.
===How are orders for child support changed?===
Under section 17(4) of the ''[[Divorce Act]]'', the court can change an order for child support if there has been a change in circumstances that would result in a different amount of support being paid. Typical changes are increases or decreases in the payor's income, or changes in how the children's time is divided between the spouses. Section 17(6.1) requires that ''variation orders'' — an order changing another order — about child support also calculate child support under the [[Child Support Guidelines]]. People can sometimes agree that the court will make a certain order. Orders that are made with the agreement of the parties are called ''consent orders.'' Under section 17(6.4), a consent order varying a child support must calculate child support under the [[Child Support Guidelines]]. However, the court may be prepared to consider other terms of an order or agreement that provide an important benefit to the children in deciding whether the amount of support being paid is reasonable. This can sometimes be hard to prove.
====When both spouses live in British Columbia====
To change a British Columbia ''[[Divorce Act]]'' child support order when both spouses live here, the ''applicant '' — the person making the application — must file a Notice of Application in the original court proceeding. The Supreme Court Family Rules have special provisions for rules about applications to change final orders.
====When a spouse lives outside of British Columbia====
To change a British Columbia ''[[Divorce Act]]'' child support order when the ''respondent '' — the person against whom the application is made — lives in another province, the applicant first applies here, in sends an application to the British Columbia, for a ''provisional order'' under section 18[[https://www.isoforms.bc.ca Interjurisdictional Support Services Program]]. If the court makes a provisional order, it <span class="noglossary">The program will</span> send the order application to the province where court or child support recalculation program in the respondent lives, and the court there <span class="noglossary">will</span> have a hearing to ''confirm'' the provisional order under section 19s province. The court at or recalculation program will take care of letting the confirmation hearing may: *confirm respondent know about the provisional orderapplication, *confirm and the provisional order with some changes,*refuse to confirm application will be handled in the provisional order, or*send the application back to British Columbia for more informationrespondent's province.
==The law about spousal support==