How child support is calculated?

Wondering how child support is calculated?

Are you a resident of Quebec or looking to calculate child support based on the Quebec child support guidelines?

This is the perfect article for you!

In this article, we will look at how child support is calculated in the Province of Quebec and go follow along with an example so you can fully understand how child support is calculated in Quebec. We will look at calculating the parents’ disposable income, look at possible authorized deductions, determine the total child support obligations based on the Child Support Determination Tables and ultimately calculate the monthly child support obligation.

This article is divided into the following sections:

Calculate each parents’ total gross annual income
Determine any authorized deductions
Calculate the total disposable income for both parents
Calculate the income distribution factor for each parent
Establish the annual parental contribution based on the number of children
Determine if there are any special expenses for the children
Determine your child custody arrangement
How does the Quebec government establish the child support obligations?
Brochure presenting the Quebec model for the determination for child support payments
How to calculate child support in Quebec takeaways

We also have a complete guide on child support in Quebec where our family lawyer answers many common child support questions. Feel free to consult our guide at any time.

Having said that, let’s begin…

1- Calculate each parents’ total gross annual income

To calculate child support, you must first establish each parents’ total annual gross income from all sources worldwide.

In the Province of Quebec, you must complete the Child Support Determination Form to calculate each party’s total annual gross income from all sources.

The Child Support Determination Form requires that you disclose your income derived from the following sources, at a minimum:

Salary
Commissions
Tips
Self-employment income
Employment insurance benefits
Parental insurance benefits
Support paid by a third party
Retirement bernefits
Disability benefits
Interests
Dividends
Investment income
Rental revenue
Any other source of income

With this list, each parent should be able to calculate their total annual income.

Let’s think of an example.

Imagine there is a father who makes $50,000 per year and a mother who makes $45,000 per year and both of them are salaried employees.

Father’s total gross annual income: $50,000.
Motherès total gross annual income: $45,000.

2- Determine any authorized deductions

Each parent can deduct a certain amount from their total annual gross income as an authorized deduction for the purpose of calculating child support.

In Quebec, there are three authorized deductions:

Basic deduction
Union dues
Professional fees

The basic deduction is a fixed amount established by the Quebec government as outlined in the Child Support Determination Table (or the Basic Parental Contribution Determination Table) published on a yearly basis.

In 2020, the deduction is $11,680.

The union dues are an authorized deduction if either parent is subject to a collective bargaining agreement, so you’ll deduct your yearly cost of union dues

The professional fees can be deducted such as if a parent is a member of a professional code like an accountant, notary, engineer, lawyer and so on.

If in our example, neither parent has any union dues or professional fees, each parent is allowed to deduct $11,680 from their income so we can calculate each parent’s disposable income.

3- Calculate the total disposable income for both parents

To calculate each parents’ disposable income, all you need to do is to take each parents’ total income and deduct the authorized deductions. In our example:

Father’s disposable income: $50,000 – $11,680 = $38,320.
Mother’s disposable income: $45,000 – $11,680 = $33,320.

Now that we have each parents’ disposable income, we add the two together to get the total disposable income for both parties.

Father’s disposable income of $38,320 + mother’s disposable income of $33,320 = $71,640

Therefore, the total disposable income for both parents: $71,640

4- Calculate the income distribution factor for each parent

The income distribution factor is essentially the weighted average of the income distribution between both parents.

In our example, the total disposable income for both parents is $71,640. So if the father’s disposable income is $38,320, his weight in the total disposable income is 53.49%.

This is calculated by doing ( $38,320 / $71,640 ) X 100 = 53.49%.

If the father has a weight of 53.49%, then the mother has a weight of 46.51%.

This is calculated by doing 100% – 53.49% = 46.51%.

Father’s disposable income weight: 53.49%
Mother’s disposable income weight: 46.51%

5- Establish the annual parental contribution based on the number of children

The Quebec government publishes an annual Child Support Determination Table or Basic Parental Contribution Determination Table establishing how much child support parents must pay depending on their total disposable income and the number of children they have.

In our example, we have calculated both parents’ total disposable income to be $71,640. Also, assume that they have 2 children.

By looking up in the Basic Parental Contribution Determination Table, for two children, the law states that the parents must pay a total of $13,470 to support both children.

Total yearly child support obligation is therefore $13,470 for both parents.

6- Determine if there are any special expenses for the children

Special expenses can be added to the calculation of child support.

The Child Support Determination Form specifically provides for the following special expenses:

Child care expenses
College and university expenses
Other special expenses

Imagine for the sake of our example that the mother pays daycare expenses for the two children amounting to $2,400 per year.

The total children’s special expenses will therefore amount to $2,400 that should be added to the basic total parental contribution of $13,470.

In our example therefore, the total annual support obligations amounts to $15,870.

7- Determine your child custody arrangement

Once you have determined the total annual child support obligations for both parents, you must then look at the child custody arrangement in order to calculate the impact of the child custody on each parents’ child support obligations.

For the sake of simplicity, let’s assume that each parent will have a 50/50 shared custody over the two children.

We must first calculate the basic parental obligation for each parent. So:

For father: $13,470 X 53.49% = $7,205.10
For mother: $13,470 X 46.51% = $6,264.90

Then we take the basic parental obligation for both parents and multiply by the custody percentage. In our example:

For father: $13,470 X 50% of custody for father = $6,735.00
For mother: $13,470 X 50% of custody for mother = $6,735.00

Then we deduct the first number the the second:

For father: $7,205.10 – $6,735.00 = 470.10
For mother: $6,264.90 – $6,735.00 = $0.00

The father will therefore need to pay the mother $470.10 to compensate for the child support obligations.

We must also calculate the father’s contribution towards the children’s daycare expenses as he must assume 53.49% of the yearly cost of $2,400.

Father’s share of daycare charges: $2,400 X 53.49% = $1,283.76

Therefore, the total that the father owes the mother is $470.10 + $1,283.76 = $1,753.86.

If the father chooses to pay child support on a monthly basis, he will then need to pay $146.15 per month.

8- How does the Quebec government establish the child support obligations?

Every year, the Quebec government publishes the child support obligations applicable in relation to the Quebec child support guidelines.

This table is the result of a statistical and actuarial analysis of the cost that households incur for providing the nine basic needs of their children, namely:

food
lodging
clothing
furnishings
telecommunications
transportation
personal hygiene
household maintenance
leisure activities

The law therefore considers that to raise a child in Quebec, parents must pay for at least these nine basic needs for their children to assure them a healthy and normal development.

Although the Courts have discretion to change child support payments and deviate from these tables, the rule is for the table to apply most of the time.

9- Brochure presenting the Quebec model for the determination for child support payments

There is a complete brochure that the Quebec government has published that goes into all the details on how to calculate child support entitled The Quebec model for the determination of child support payments.

You can use this document to really dig deep into the calculation of child support based on the Quebec child support guidelines.

10- How to calculate child support in Quebec takeaways

Calculating child support can get somewhat complicated depending on your family circumstances such as the number of children you have and the custody arrangement applicable to each child.

In this article, we calculated a relatively simple scenario where both parents are employees, have two children and have shared custody.

Imagine other scenarios where a parent is self-employed, earns money under the table, has a business off-shore, does not have lots of income but has a lot of fixed assets, there are many children and a different custody arrangement is applicable to each child and so on…

In such cases, you may need to consult with a child support lawyer to help you calculate child support in such a way that you do not make costly mistakes.

Should you need the support and assistance of competent child support lawyers in Quebec, our law firm is ready and able to serve you. Contact us and we are happy to discuss your case further.

We hope you enjoyed this article and wish you the best of luck to calculate your child support.