Seems like every year since my ex decided she wanted out of our marriage, the "system" finds another way to affect me financially. I'm sharing this story with you to help those better prepare their separation agreements. I have shared custody of my two kids and we did an amicable separation agreement with a lawyer. As per the norm, my child support is based on both our incomes and since I have the larger salary we agreed that I will just pay the offset monthly. We also agreed with 2 kids that each one of us will claim a child for tax purposes as we met the conditions defined in (Shared custody and the amount for an eligible dependant)
After 2 years of claiming like this with no issues from CRA, they decided to review my file for 2012 taxes and decided I did not meet the conditions. I was flabbergasted. I knew I met the conditions, so I appealed their decision right away and sent the separation agreement and explained exactly how we match the example defined in the link above. Sadly, they denied my appeal.
Here was their argument:
The wording in my separation agreement basically says "child support is based on both our salaries and that I will pay this $$ (the offset) to my ex. and it is to be re-negotiated every year". Because it don't explicitly detail the actual calculation, that is say my amount of child support and my ex's amount of child support and that we agree that I will pay the offset... they will not let me claim a child and that it is written more like the last example on that site. So many months of back and forth and fustration all over a few words missing from our agreement. On top of this I have to pay back over $2500 which has been incurring interest during this appeal process.
What an impact a few words has had. Make sure you word your agreements correctly. And for the lawyers too, please update your templates to the benefit of parents and their kids. My next step is to amend our agreement for future claims and I'm going to take court action on my preivous claim.. more money and fustration I'm sure.
The system is broken :-(
After 2 years of claiming like this with no issues from CRA, they decided to review my file for 2012 taxes and decided I did not meet the conditions. I was flabbergasted. I knew I met the conditions, so I appealed their decision right away and sent the separation agreement and explained exactly how we match the example defined in the link above. Sadly, they denied my appeal.
Here was their argument:
The wording in my separation agreement basically says "child support is based on both our salaries and that I will pay this $$ (the offset) to my ex. and it is to be re-negotiated every year". Because it don't explicitly detail the actual calculation, that is say my amount of child support and my ex's amount of child support and that we agree that I will pay the offset... they will not let me claim a child and that it is written more like the last example on that site. So many months of back and forth and fustration all over a few words missing from our agreement. On top of this I have to pay back over $2500 which has been incurring interest during this appeal process.
What an impact a few words has had. Make sure you word your agreements correctly. And for the lawyers too, please update your templates to the benefit of parents and their kids. My next step is to amend our agreement for future claims and I'm going to take court action on my preivous claim.. more money and fustration I'm sure.
The system is broken :-(
Comment