Child Support Guidelines

Child Support Guidelines (All You Need To Know)

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Wondering what are child support guidelines?

You’ve heard that child support is calculated based on the applicable child support guidelines, but what are they?

There are federal child support guidelines and provincial ones, which one applies?

In this article, we will discuss child support guidelines in detail!

We have divided this article into the following sections:

Let’s get started…

What are child support guidelines

The child support guidelines are a set of rules established by provincial and federal governments providing the guidelines for calculating child support for legal purposes.

When a parent is required to pay child support to another, how do you determine what should be the actual amount payable?

That’s when you use the applicable child support guidelines as a framework to calculate child support.

Depending on your child support case, either the Canadian federal child support guideline will apply or a provincial child support guidelines.

The child support guidelines will apply to separated parents either married or in common-law relationships.

In this article we look at each of these child maintenance guidelines.

Objectives of child maintenance guidelines

The child support guidelines are designed in such a way that the parents will both continue to share the expense of their children in proportion to their income as if they were still living together or in a relationship.

This means that the child support obligations must be assumed by both parents and not just the one having decision-making responsibilities or taking care of the child.

The child support guidelines are generally structured in such a way that based on the paying parent’s income and the number of children requiring child support, the child support guideline tables will define a specific amount to pay.

Federal child support guidelines 

The Canadian government has adopted the federal child support guideline applicable when parents are applying for a divorce in any Canadian province.

Since the Divorce Act is a federal law, the child support guidelines in Canada provides the framework to calculate child support will be the federal child support guidelines.

You can access a full copy of the Federal Child Support Guidelines.

The federal government offers a convenient way for you to calculate your child support online based on maintenance guidelines.

You can consult our article on child support calculator for more information on calculating child support.

Provincial child support guidelines

In addition to the federal child support guideline, every province and territory in Canada has its own set of child support guidelines.

There are some Canadian provinces that have negotiated an arrangement with the federal government whereby they will apply their own child support guidelines even in the context of divorce proceedings.

These provinces are called “Designated Provinces”.

The Designated Provinces are Quebec, Manitoba and New Brunswick.

In general, the child support guidelines in most Canadian provinces and territories are similar to the federal guidelines. 

The child support guidelines of the designated provinces may be different.

Particularly, the Quebec government’s child support guideline is substantially different than the Canadian one.

It is important that you validate which child support guidelines apply to your case to ensure you are calculating child support based on the right child maintenance guidelines.

Child support guideline tables

The child support guidelines are composed of tables outlining the possible child support amounts payable depending on the payer’s income and number of children.

In the federal child support guidelines, at its Schedule I, you have the Federal Child Support Tables.

As an example, the Federal Child Support Tables shows something like the following:

It’s literally a table of where you have a range of revenue and the child support payable per month for one child.

If the paying parent earns $20,000 per year, he or she will need to pay $223 per month for one child if the Quebec tables apply.

Each provincial government will also have its own child support guideline tables.

The Quebec child support guideline tables, called the Basic Parental Contribution Table, are published on Justice Quebec’s website.

There is a separate child support table for each province.

Takeaway

In Canada, you have the federal child support guidelines and each province will have its own child support guidelines.

The child support guidelines are intended to allow for the calculation of child support payments for parents separating.

If you are filing for a divorce, in most Canadian provinces, the federal child support guidelines will apply except for Quebec, Manitoba and New Brunswick where they will have their own applicable guidelines.

For common-law couples separating, the child support guideline of their local province will apply.

Generally, even if the provincial child support guidelines apply, the calculation will be similar, if not identical, to the federal child support guidelines.

You’ll need to ensure you define which child support guidelines apply to your case so you can ensure you calculate your child support adequately.

We hope this article was helpful and wish you good luck in your child support research.