Our Vancouver family and child support lawyers help you navigate and protect your child’s rights to adequate financial support.
Child support in British Columbia is the right of the child, and the paying parent’s amount is set mainly by the Federal Child Support Guidelines based on income and the number of children. Support normally continues until a child turns 19, and can run longer if the child is still dependent because of school or a disability.
On its surface, the matter of child is relatively simple. No one can deny that children are entitled have financial resources of each parent available to raise them to adulthood. There are plenty of internet sites that can quickly give you an idea of what a basic monthly child support obligation is under the Federal Child Support Guidelines.
The matter of basic child support, however, quickly becomes less clear when there is an arrangement for shared parenting or when one or the other parent derives their income from self employment or business ownership.
There are other grey areas, too. What if you have step-children? Suppose the industry which supplies one parent’s income is unpredictable and there are income fluctuations? What about your adult child who is going to university? Parents have a wonderful commitment to giving their children the best chance of success as an adult. The range of extra-curricular activities available to benefit your child include tutoring, sports programmes, music instruction and many other recreational pursuits.
Our family laws recognize that the extra expenses associated with these beneficial programmes are to be divided fairly between the parties. However, this is a particularly fraught area since parents can easily disagree about whether the time commitments and associated costs are capable of being sustained after a family breakdown.
The matter of child support is a key facet in ensuring the continuity of your child’s social, educational and recreational pursuits. Onyx Law Group will ensure that you know your child’s rights to financial support and that they are protected to the best of our ability.
How the guideline amount is actually calculated
Child support in British Columbia runs off the Federal Child Support Guidelines, which the province has adopted so the same tables apply whether a file proceeds under the Divorce Act or the Family Law Act. The base figure, called the table amount, comes from two inputs and nothing else: the paying parent’s Guidelines income and the number of children being supported. Look up the payor’s income against the British Columbia table for that number of children, and you have the monthly amount. Because the province is set by where the paying parent lives, the BC table governs local cases.
Guidelines income usually starts at line 15000 of the payor’s tax return, but it does not always end there. Sections 15 to 20 of the Guidelines let a court adjust the figure: adding back a portion of a corporation’s pre-tax income for a parent who controls the company, factoring in dividends or capital gains, or, under section 19, imputing income to a parent who is intentionally under-employed, has quit work without a good reason, or is not disclosing fully. With salaried employees the number is often obvious. With self-employed parents and business owners, working out the real income is frequently the entire dispute.
Add-on expenses, shared parenting, and adult children
Three rules sit on top of the table amount and change what a parent actually pays.
Special or extraordinary expenses. Under section 7 of the Guidelines, certain costs are shared on top of the table amount rather than covered by it: childcare needed for work or study, the child’s share of medical and dental premiums, significant health expenses, some post-secondary and educational costs, and extraordinary extracurricular activities. These are divided in proportion to each parent’s income, not split down the middle. A parent earning two-thirds of the combined income generally carries two-thirds of the daycare bill.
Shared parenting. Section 9 changes the math once each parent has the child at least 40 percent of the time over the year. The straight table amount no longer applies automatically. Instead the court weighs a set-off of each parent’s table amount against the other, the increased cost of running two homes for the child, and the means and needs of each household. This is why crossing the 40 percent line can move the support figure noticeably, and why parenting time and support are argued together rather than in isolation.
Adult children. Support does not automatically stop at 19, British Columbia’s age of majority. It can continue for an adult child who stays dependent because of full-time schooling, illness, or disability, under section 147 of the Family Law Act and the “child of the marriage” definition in the Divorce Act. For an adult child in university the amount is not always the plain table figure; a court can set a different amount it considers appropriate given the child’s own resources and the cost of the program.
Retroactive child support
Support can also reach backward. Where a parent underpaid, often because income rose and was not disclosed, a court can order retroactive support for a past period. The framework comes from the Supreme Court of Canada in D.B.S. v. S.R.G., 2006 SCC 37, which weighs why the recipient delayed asking, the payor’s conduct, the child’s circumstances, and any hardship a back-payment would cause; the usual reach-back runs to about the date effective notice was given, commonly three years. The later decision in Michel v. Graydon, 2020 SCC 24, confirmed that a claim can be pursued even after the child is grown. Ongoing disclosure of income is the practical lesson: the parent who hides a raise is the one most exposed to a retroactive order.
Onyx Law Group represents clients throughout British Columbia with family law, estate and trust litigation, estate planning and probate/estate administration matters. Consult with our experienced BC team at
(604) 670-5138