Changing Child Support

[Babygrrl]

I know this question may have been asked but I could not for the life of me find it anywhere.
Situation in a nutshell
Common-law for 4 years, separated two years ago, we have a separation agreement and court order for child support.
He is wanting to take me back to court because I did not let him have our son on christmas eve last year. Child support is going to be changed because his job changed and thats ok, but can he change it without applying to the court in Ontario? His lawyer says all he needs is 2 consecutive pay stubs but my argument with that is he can just not work all his hours for 2 weeks? He is supposed to supply me with his tax return which he chooses not to do as well but thats life I suppose. He is married now and even tells me that she can have visitation if he ever (heaven forbid) passes away. The question with that is she obligated to pay child support as well? (not an important question, my mother brought it up so I thought I would ask)

Thanks so much in advance for any advice.

[Jeff]

Hi Babygrrl and welcome to the forums!

The current court order or separation agreement for child support (or custody or anything else) stay in place until there is a new order or separation agreement in place. So, if your ex's income has changed, he can't just unilaterally change his child support - the change must be done by agreemetn or court order. However, the change can be retroactive.

The disclosure requirements are set out at section 21 of the Child Support Guidelines:
http://www.justice.gc.ca/en/ps/sup/grl/ligfed.html

Basically, a person needs to provide their three most recent income tax returns including notices of assessment or reassessment.

As well, if the person is an employee they need to provide their most recent pay stub. The pay stub needs to indicate total earnings in the year to date. This is what protects you from getting a pay stub that doesn't accurately reflect your ex's earnings. If the pay stub doesn't have this, he'll need to get a letter from hisemployer setting out his remuneration.

In your case, you should probably get your ex's T4 for 2005 if he hasn't filed his 2005 income tax return yet.

If your ex isn't providing at least this disclosure, the judge probably won't reduce his child support until this is done.

Your ex's new wife normally would have no child support obligation.

[CatvsLion]

I just have a question regarding the recent pay stubs. I've asked this before I think but it's hard to get a cut and dry answer...

Let's say my paystub income for last year was $50,000 but my T4 shows my income as $56,000 (from overtime). My current paystubs shows my salary being now $52,000 (yearly raise). My income for 2004 was $60,000 but my paystub income was $54,000 (I changed position in 2005 which resulted in a paycut). In 2003 my income was $55,000 and my paystub was $52,000

So what should my child support be based on (there is no court order yet). Right now I'm paying based on $50,000 but as I have to give my assesment and current pay I'm not sure what it goes upto. Also because I've switched jobs I'm not going to get the same overtime as I was previously.

I've heard that if there is a difference then you take the last three years. Which would mean
2003 - $55,000
2004 - $60,000
2005 - $56,000
2006 - $52,000 (paystub)

The average of that is $55,750 - would that be what I'm ordered to pay or would I pay on my new payscale of $52?

[hubby]

Believe it comes from Line 150 of your income tax return.

Hubby

[FPI]

Your question sound very much with what I'm going through. As for you income it is based on the current years income. That is inluding your overtime. So let say you made $52,000.00 and had $5,000.00 in overtime your child care would be based on $57,000.00.
If your going to use the excuse that you donot do anymore overtime the judge could impute it on you.
In my case my wife Lawyers asked why I'm not doing anymore overtime? I had to supply them with a letter from my employer as to why it's not offered to me anymore. They still have not given me an answer whether this is sufficent enough.
My lawyer had me supply her with a letter of how much overtime I did in the last 3 years.
Note I also changed positions, I tried telling them that there is no overtime offered in my new position, they didn't accept that reason, that is why it's best to get a letter from your employer outlining they avaliabilty of O.T