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ARTICLE · 09 FEBRUARY 2017

Important Tax Information For Parents With Shared Custody

Devry Smith Frank LLP
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A recent Canadian Tax Court Case has important implications for parents with shared custody and the way child support is paid and collected.

CanadaFamily and Matrimonial
Devry Smith Frank LLP
Devry Smith Frank LLP
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A recent Canadian Tax Court Case has important implications for parents with shared custody and the way child support is paid and collected. The decision in Harder v. The Queen changes the way parents with shared custody must deal with child support. It is likely that most parents with shared custody will have to change their child support arrangements and the Family Responsibility Office will have to change its procedures to prevent running into tax problems.

How Shared Custody, Child Support and Taxes Used to Work

The Supreme Courts set the rules for child support in shared custody in it decision in Contino v. Leonelli- Contino. At paragraph 49 of that decision, the Supreme Court said that the starting point for calculating child support in shared custody, which persists unless it results in an unfair sharing of the costs of raising the children, is that the parents calculate what each of them would owe under the Child Support Guidelines Tables and set

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