Development of a "with child support" advisary guideline support calculator

[logicalvelocity]

Jeff,

Current standing,

1) I have the calculator to the point where by making one entry it calculates the federal tax, and Ontario Tax, CPP rates and EI Rates. What I realize though is that it does not factor in any credits such as the personal exemption, equivalent to spouse amount etc or any of those scenarios that could be entered in a T1 form. Other deductions could include pensions, RSP's, union dues, medical expenses etc. To determine ones true income tax obligation, these deductions should be factored in.

2) For child support entry, I looked at the new child support Ontario tables. I have yet to figure out the formula used to calculate the payable obligation. so many variables, number of children, ceiling and floor of income and they offer a bracket float and another variable percent depending where ones income falls in the bracket. To complicate further, Some people may be still on the old tables or an agreed amount. To make it simpled, I think it would be best to allow the user to input the amount they actually pay. Any suggestion?

3) I think what they mean by the term NOTIONAL child support is a presumed amount of child support a custody parent would spend on their child.


LV

[Jeff]

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you about this. I'm still thinking about what the best way of dealing with these things is.

[Jeff]

Jeff,

Current standing,

1) I have the calculator to the point where by making one entry it calculates the federal tax, and Ontario Tax, CPP rates and EI Rates. What I realize though is that it does not factor in any credits such as the personal exemption, equivalent to spouse amount etc or any of those scenarios that could be entered in a T1 form. Other deductions could include pensions, RSP's, union dues, medical expenses etc. To determine ones true income tax obligation, these deductions should be factored in.

Yes, you'd need to do an entire calculation of a person's income taxes, which would include all this information. Then, to complicate matters, the amount of tax is going to depend on the amount of spousal support paid, so there would need to be an iterative process of some sort.

I suppose it depends how ambitious you want to be. If you develop all of this, I think you could sell it!

I think you'd at least need to ask for:

1. income of both parties,

2. number of children,

3. amount of section 7 expenses,

4. RRSP / RRP contributions,

5. Union or professional dues,

6. Carrying charges and interest expenses,

7. All the various tax credits (perhaps you could get people to add this together before inputting it) including spousal amount, eligible dependent amount, disability amount, age 65 amount, tuition and educational expenses amount (for both individual and carried over from children), medical expenses, and chartiable donations.

8. Rent credit and property tax credit

2) For child support entry, I looked at the new child support Ontario tables. I have yet to figure out the formula used to calculate the payable obligation. so many variables, number of children, ceiling and floor of income and they offer a bracket float and another variable percent depending where ones income falls in the bracket. To complicate further, Some people may be still on the old tables or an agreed amount. To make it simpled, I think it would be best to allow the user to input the amount they actually pay. Any suggestion?

I think that it's simplest to ask what is actually paid (or proposed to be paid). You could include a link to the child support tables for people to look up the appropriate amount. Probably will save you a lot of calculating.

3) I think what they mean by the term NOTIONAL child support is a presumed amount of child support a custody parent would spend on their child.
LV

Yes, it's the table amount for the parent who receives child support. Again, you could just get the person to look this up and input it.

I think that if you look through the guidelines there are some other limitations as well. For instance, IIRC, the payor's income must be greater than $20,000 and less than $350,000.

In short, I think calculating the exact amount would be quite complicated. If you can get the spreadsheet just to produce a ball park figure, I think that would be pretty good and helpful to a lot of people.

[logicalvelocity]

Jeff,

I looked at the federal and Ont tax forms and at quick tax 2005. Basically from what I gather is the Gross tax is calculated at federal level and provincial level, this is the first step, then personal deductions such as non-refundable tax credits are given back to you as a credit against payable tax. ie:
Federal Level at 15% of credit amounts and provincial level 6+% of credit amounts. These non refundable tax credits are deducted from the gross tax payable. They also include CPP and UI contributions into these non refundable tax credits.

I agree that by an individual could look up the guideline amount of child support or enter in an alternate amount is the best way to go. As well as section 7 guideline expense.

I think I have a good starting base point now, 2nd phase is just to tailor it to accommodate a variety of circumstances that could apply.

I'll keep you posted on what I come up with shortly.

lv