Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

separation agreement deadlines/child care receipts

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • separation agreement deadlines/child care receipts

    My friend has a separation agreement with his ex.
    The agreement states that if they require any information from each other that they must provide it in writing, they both have to present the information within 30 days and they can only ask once per calendar year.

    Back in June the ex was asking my friend for money towards babysitting. He told her that he had no problem paying, he just needed the receipts.

    She didn't give him any receipts, he questioned her a few times about it....never received any receipts. Then one day, she handed him a piece of lined paper that she had just wrote out months and a price beside them. (Is that proper proof? Would he be allowed to use that as proof for income tax claiming purposes?)
    He was expecting actual receipts from the child care provider--so he hasn't gave her any money yet.

    September 13, she sent him a letter asking for his 2009 and 2010 income tax summary's....but she failed to give him hers. She just wrote down my income for 2009 was ***** income for 2010 was *****

    So he wrote her back explaining that if she wanted his income tax summary's, she needed to provide the exact same document to him. He basically said, since you just wrote your incomes down on this piece of paper--that is how I'm responding to you and he wrote his incomes down for 2009 and 2010.
    He told her you first requested this September 13, so you have until October 13 to present me with your income tax summary's in order for me to provide mine.

    October 13 passed and didn't receive any income tax summary's from her---according to their separation agreement, she cannot ask again until next year.

    October 21, he gets a letter from a lawyer saying that his ex has retained her, she seen his correspondence with the ex, and unfortunately he has to still provide his income tax summary's and he has 10 days to do so, or they are taking him to court.

    So do lawyers not have to follow the separation agreement rules? She had 30 days to present/get this stuff and failed to do it--the agreement states she can't ask again until next year.

    The lawyer did include the ex's income tax summary's though

    We noticed that she is claiming $9000 and some for child care costs and that full amount of $9000 and some is getting deducted off----does the government refund people 100% of child care costs??

    or does this sound like she has 100% child care subsidy?

  • #2
    Regarding child care, you can only claim a certan amount per child, I believe it is currently $7k per year. If the total was $9k, she wouldn`t claim it all.

    Your friend my not claim child care on his income tax unless the child lives with him at least 40% of the time, and it is a shared parenting arrangement. He would need to register the agreement with CRA to prove this, and should be claiming a share of the child tax credit. In other word, you have to do it all or the return gets flagged.

    The child care is a deduction against income. Without knowing the ex`s income we can only guess here, but let`s say she is paying a 30% tax rate. She gets a refund of 30% X 7k = $2100. Please remember this is just an example. So her net child care cost is $6900 ($9000 - $2100). Your friend should be paying a share of $6900 based on their proportionate incomes. For this reason they both need to exchange income tax RETURNS to confirm the amounts, not just Notice of Assessment.

    Your friend should write out the above paragraph and send it to the ex`s lawyer. Of course the lawyer knows this, but won`t admit it. But the lawyer is representing the ex, not your friend. Your friend needs to establish with the lawyer that he (your friend) is fully aware of the rules and that he expects the ex to comply.

    If the ex has sent the tax return info, your friiend should comply regardless of the once a year rule. The ex DID ask.

    Don`t be bullied by the ex`s lawyer, but also do the best to comply with the agreement. Exchanging tax info is standard. Send your info, request the other info.

    I would personally ask for copies of daycare receipts as well, but this harder to push if the CRA has accepted the amounts.

    Comment


    • #3
      Thanx Mess, I read something on here that was saying that the child support payer could also claim child care expenses like this http://www.ottawadivorce.com/forum/f...74/index2.html (Just noticed it was like 5 years ago--so maybe things have changed?)

      He figured he would have to give his income tax summary's to her lawyer--just taking his time/let her rack up some fees. (Doesn't make sense why they'd even have that 30 day deadline/ask once a year stipulation in the agreement if it doesn't need to be followed) It's just crazy though, because he would have gave it all to her with no problems, if she would have provided this stuff herself to him---she didn't provide it until she got the lawyer--clearly the lawyer told her she needed to provide it to him.

      She also scammed him out of $5000 through FRO
      Basically he owed her one year of support $4000 (when he was let go from his job)
      As soon as he got a new job, he gave her $2000....so he only owed her $2000 then and made a deal to pay her extra support each month until the remaining $2000 was paid back.

      A week after he gave her the $2000/made the deal with her, he got a letter from FRO--she told them that he never ever paid support--she said that he owed her $7000. He didn't have proof that he didn't owe her that high amount, and had FRO garnish it off his wages.

      That $7000 is caught up now (even though he truly only owed her $2000) He basically gave her $12000 this year(had to pay the $7000,plus the $400 monthly support on top of it) (and the kids have nothing to show for it from her)

      He just sent FRO proof of the $2000 in cheques that he gave her a week before he knew they were contacted, so hopefully they will reimburse him for that at the least.

      Comment


      • #4
        That old post doesn't contradict what I am saying.

        If she has the children full time, the daycare is an expense so that SHE can work/go to school. It is deductable for her. It is not deductable for your friend.

        If a couple has a 60/40 split, one parent will be paying support *usually. In this case the CRA would have normally disallowed a child care claim. Further, the other parent receiving support would have claimed the child as a dependent, which would have flagged the returns.

        This policy was overturned several years ago; in a 60/40 situation the CRA will now acknowledge shared custody and allow both parents to make child care claims and allow either parent (not both the same year) to claim the child as dependent no matter which is paying support. But this is only true if there is 60/40 shared parenting.

        If the other parent has sole custody I can't conceive of how your friend would claim child care. If he has the child one day during the week I suppose he could try but I doubt even that would fly.

        Comment


        • #5
          ok, thank you for explaining all that!

          Comment


          • #6
            He just sent FRO proof of the $2000 in cheques that he gave her a week before he knew they were contacted, so hopefully they will reimburse him for that at the least.
            They won't. It's up to him to get a judgement against her for the amounts he's already paid. FRO will not reimburse him jack squat.

            Might be worthwhile to bring up to her lawyer about this and request her client reimburse him the amount that was overpaid, or obtain agreement to lower this year's CS by a preset amount each month until it's paid back.

            Comment


            • #7
              Thanx NBDAD!

              Very interesting to find out how things work!

              Comment


              • #8
                The cheapest solution would be small claims court for this amount. Just make sure you have all your paperwork and proof the money was paid twice.

                Comment

                Our Divorce Forums
                Forums dedicated to helping people all across Canada get through the separation and divorce process, with discussions about legal issues, parenting issues, financial issues and more.
                Working...
                X