For a self-employed individual, the amount of income used to
determine a child-support obligation rarely mirrors the income
declared on that person’s income tax return. In fact, an
individual’s income tax return is just the starting point
when it comes to calculating the amount of support payable by one
parent to the other.
In AMW v. BW 2018, a recent case coming out of the
Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta, Justice Mah squarely
addressed the impact of self-employment on the determination of
income for child support purposes. In that case, the support payor,
BW, owned interests in three corporations through a somewhat
complex network of shareholdings with other individuals. All three
corporations were engaged in the oilfield industry.
