CRA vs Family Law

[thefunone]

Hey there - I'm a bit unsure and hope someone (smarter than me) can explain this to me...

I am ordered to pay CS and S7 on a monthly basis - no issue. If after an accounting at the end of the year - there has been an overpayment of S7 - I am to be refunded those monies from my ex. I have yet to receive a reimbursement of overpayment.

On my taxes I add my CS and S7 together and have a total of support paid for that year. I'm told that CRA doesn't recognize S7 as a support payment. Can this trigger an Assessment?

How can one govt tax law indicate that it is not deemed as support and one Family Law deem that it is? If I fail to pay S7 - I can be brought back to court and found in breach of a court order.

Is S7 child support or not? If I am not allowed to add it into my support payment column.....is it a "gift"?
The money goes to my kids - so - to me its support....

This is all so confusing....LOL

[rockscan]

The only thing you can claim on your taxes is spousal support. If you have shared 50/50 then some orders have one parent claiming the child benefit every other year.

If you are paying full table support then what is supposed to happen is your ex subtracts any tax benefits from the s7 expense and then you use the net cost to split according to income.

That is further complicated by what is tax deductible. For the most part, daycare and medical expenses have a tax deduction. There used to be tax credits for sports but that was cancelled.

What you would need to do is take your ex’s taxes they send, plug in the known daycare expenses and see if there is a difference between taxes with and without the daycare expenses.

It could be that there are no tax benefits and thats why you aren’t getting anything back.

[thefunone]

Thanks Rockscan - I am aware that I can only claim SS - and in the past I have claimed that - but on line 230 where it asks for total - I put down ALL the support I provide (CS, S7 and SS), then on line 220 I put down ONLY the SS portion.
To me that seems logical (again, backed by banking documents of electronic transfers)...As my kids are now older - there is no daycare etc...The S7 is for orthodontic, extraordinary activities etc...
My concern is that CRA may not see S7 as "support" yet in the eyes of Family Law - it is.
Sorry if I had been confusing before.

[rockscan]

CS cannot be claimed on your taxes. You should only be putting in ss.

S7 is not support. Its additional expenses. It is listed in the support guidelines but it is extra expenses over and above what support covers.

As far as the medical expenses are concerned, if the total amount after benefits is ~$1500 or less, there really isn’t a tax benefit as it is a small % of your ex’s income.

Stop claiming the cs and S7 in your support line and look at the total medical expenses to see if they would apply for a tax deduction. Realistically, the tax benefit is minimal.

[ross_toronto]

The government tracks both. The child support and spousal support must add up to the totals in the current court order and you must be able to prove all payments to receive your correct deduction from spousal. You should list your child support even though you don't get a reduction from it. You can leave off section 7 unless you have a specific dollar amount listed in your court order. If you dont list both the government can say you are in arrears of child support and refuse to grant your spousal deduction. This happened to me and it took months to sort out.

[rockscan]

Then that is probably OP’s problem. There is no set number for s7 in his order therefore putting it in is making it difficult for CRA to calculate.

[tunnelight]

While you can claim child support, there really isn't any thing you get out of it. It used to be something that could be claimed and effect taxes, but they decided they weren't screwing over men bad enough.

I tried claiming it and they actually ask for proof. You provide then they respond that it's not claimable since I think over 15 years ago. Kind of dumb that you can still claim it and they ask for proof, to then say it's actually not a claimable thing in Ontario anymore.

What I do now is claim it, then when they ask for the proof, I just don't respond because I already know they will say no. Just to create more work for them and annoy them for making CS not claimable for discriminated dad's.

This year and moving forward, I'm paying an experienced tax person to do my taxes and extract every single penny from the CRA. Soon enough there will be offset and I will be claiming child tax benefits.

Best thing to do is never agree to less than 40 percent access. Soon as you give an inch they take a mile.

[momof2teenboys]

CRA can be a pain and choosing to pay S7 expenses through FRO can really mess things up. FRO will collect S7 expenses even if the $$ amount is not itemized in your court order - so long as you have the expense that is being submitted as agreed, percentage etc.

If there are ANY arrears at the end of the year CRA will not be able to determine if it is S7, child support or spousal based on your order and what you prove you have paid. They will disallow the tax deduction. Though I'm not sure what effect this has, if any, on the recipient's tax return.

ex. Payor is responsible for $300/m CS, $1200/m SS. BUT there are expenses throughout the year ie piano lessons $100 x 8 and hockey fees $1700 (expenses are agreed in court order so FRO adds to the bill). So an additional $2500 in expenses. While the payor pays $1500/m without fail they ignore the additional $2500 or don't pay it in full or not until after the end of the year. The statement from FRO will show there is arrears. CRA will not allow SS as a tax deduction.

The payor should put CS+SS in total support paid and SS in support deductible. (Two separate lines on your return) You don't include S7 anywhere on your return as they are not considered "support" and it's definitely not a "gift". It's a reimbursement of a shared expense.