Child support
The Rules Governing Child Support
After a separation or divorce, parents continue to have a financial obligation towards their children, meaning one parent must pay child support to the other for the benefit of the child.
Child support is indeed intended to cover all basic expenses related to the children, such as food, clothing, housing, and other costs like extracurricular activities or school-related fees.
In Quebec, child support is meticulously calculated based on the type of custody and the respective annual incomes of each parent using the Child Support Determination Form, also known as Annex 1.
As for spousal support, it is only available to spouses who were married and meet a series of very specific criteria established by law. This support aims to maintain a certain standard of living for the financially vulnerable spouse who suffers serious economic consequences due to the end of the union.
Spousal Support
Spousal support is an avenue exclusively reserved for married or civilly united spouses. Common-law partners may only be eligible if they explicitly provided for it in a notarized cohabitation agreement.
Thus, spousal support is quite complex as there is no predefined scale like in the case of calculating child support.
To guide us, we rely on sections 15.2 and following of the Divorce Act, which state that the principle of the validity duration of the support order and the amount to be paid depends on the factors described below:
a) The resources and needs of each spouse;
b) The length of cohabitation between the spouses;
c) The roles they fulfilled during their marriage (e.g., one spouse worked while the other took care of the household);
d) Any order, agreement, or arrangement for the support of either spouse (e.g., upon their separation, the spouses agreed that one would pay the other an amount of $300.00 per month);
In simpler terms, the duration and amount of spousal support payments will vary depending on the number of years of marriage and the maintenance of the economically disadvantaged spouse’s financial independence after the marriage ends.
To assess the monthly amount one spouse will pay or even to demonstrate that the paying spouse cannot afford the claimed amount, we use Form III (https://jurifamille.com/system/pdf/formulaire-III.pdf).
For your information, here are three (3) frequently asked questions by our clients and the answers to these questions:
1) Does infidelity constitute a reason to be exempt from paying spousal support?
No, the court does not consider the faults committed by either spouse in relation to the marriage, according to section 15.2 (6) of the Divorce Act.
2) I am already paying child support. I cannot financially afford to also pay spousal support. What can I do?
The Divorce Act specifies that the Court prioritizes child support under section 15.3 (1) of the Divorce Act.
3) Is the spousal support I receive taxable?
Yes! Thus, when you receive support payments under an order, such amounts are considered income and are therefore taxable. Similarly, when you pay spousal support for the benefit of your ex-spouse, you may deduct them at the end of the fiscal year.
NOTE : when spouses have agreed on a lump sum payment to settle spousal support, this amount is not taxable.
For any further information, do not hesitate to contact us, and we will be pleased to clarify the subject for you.
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