This is my first post although I have been actively reading a lot and trying to make sense of it all. I must say there is some great info in here and the community is really helpful along with the occasional/much needed "tough love".
I'm presently in litigation for almost a year and there are still outstanding financial claims... haven't even moved to parenting/custody/access negotiations yet.
In this post, im looking to get advice on settling financial claims (CS, S7 and SS).
Here are the facts:
Husband/Me = 28 years old
Wife = 29 years old
-married abroad in late 2013
-wife arrived in canada as PR in spring 2015
-1st separation in late 2015 after 8 months of cohabitation
-Daughter (2 years old now) born while we were separated
-wife moved court seeking CS, SS and sole custody in Feb 2016
-we reconciled after 11 months of separation (wife completely withdrew all her claims of CS, SS, etc)
-after 5 months of cohabitation, we separated again in may 2017
-wife recommenced court application seeking CS, SS retroactive to may 2017 and sole custody
Clarification on facts
a) since there was an earlier legal separation and subsequent reconciliation, is the duration of my marriage considered to be 3.5 years or 5 months (from time of reconciliation until present separation) or 2.5 years (total marriage length minus duration of 1st separation)?
Financial situation
Prior to separation (may 2017)/throughout the marriage, my annual income was around 40,000.
1 month after separation, I found a job in the US, where my annual income increased more than 3 times.
2014-2016 – 40,000 annual
2017 – 96,000 (mix of Cdn and post sep. US income) + 42,000 (non-taxable employee expenses reimbursement/not included as income per US/Canada tax rules)
2018 (estimate) – 110,000 + 75,000 (non-taxable employee expenses reimbursement/not included as income per US/Canada tax rules)
Wife
- was a housewife, currently on Ontario Works (social assistance)
-claims she is new to Canada (even after 3 years), looking to go to college to upgrade her education (no proof provided)
-never sought employment while in Canada (at least not that I am aware of)
Child Support
-At our first case conference, I entered into a consent order based on an income of 141,600 (I estimated this amount and, at the time, didn’t know that I should not include the non-taxable portion as income).
-the order also stated that this order shall be reviewable at end of June 2018 (I insisted to add this clause knowing that my actual 2017 may be different than what I have estimated).
How should I proceed now?
-now that I have an accurate figure of $96,000 as 2017 income (not including 42,000 non-taxable portion), I want to ask for credit for the overpayments that I have been making, is it likely to hold up in court? Can the other party claim that I consented to an amount of 141,600, so too bad?
Section 7 – daycare expense
-At our first case conference, I agreed to pay full cost of $1,144 for 1 month of daycare, which I have already done so.
-Although not explicitly included in the order, I did this with the understanding that my wife will provide me with the receipt. Sure enough (I learned the hard way), nothing yet has been provided till date while she keeps making further demands for daycare payments.
-the judge ordered a motion for s7 daycare claim for jun 2018 but her lawyer keeps sending letters and threatening motion and asking me to pay.
-last month, she sent me receipt wherein she paid the full amount of last month daycare but has not provided proof that this is necessary expense (her full-time school has ended).
What should be my course of action? Motion for disclosure i.e. subsidy info, evidence this is necessary expense, etc? OR ignore it as the onus should be on her to prove this is a necessary expense?
-notwithstanding above, I have also proposed to her that my parents take care of our daughter when she needs someone else to take care of our daughter. She outright rejected it and I didn’t really push further since she has made serious allegations of abuse against me and all my family members and I fear she would continue to do so especially when presently I'm not even in Canada.
Spousal Support
-this is most tricky for me. I agree she is entitled to spousal support. I am also aware that I need to meet her financial needs for 3 years after she arrived in Canada (this sponsorship undertaking period ended in mar 2018).
- her claim is retroactive to may 2017
- I have not paid her any spousal support yet primarily because there is uncertainty in my US employment and I did not want to enter into an order on such a huge income.
-the uncertainty is that there is a pending criminal charge of assault (as she alleged on the date of separation) and I’m concerned that a conviction may impact my US employment.
Based on SSAG with child formula, my income 96,000 / wife income 0, the calculator suggests $1,753 (low end) to $2,258 (high end) with 5-16 years.
I’ve been thinking about offering the following settlement, please help me evaluate objectively if it is reasonable and/or offer additional suggestions:
-I’m willing to pay her $1,100 per month (high end based on income of $75,000 / wife $10,000) because:
-as per OSPE (a professional body in Ontario) 2017 compensation survey, $75,000 is the national average salary of a professional with same level of experience as me.
-this also happens to be the midpoint of my average income of $40,000 during marriage and POST separation income of around $110,000.
-the social assistance/tax benefits that she is receiving should be treated as income for spousal support purposes -> this is maybe around $10,000 – 15,000 (she didn’t provide her 2017 statement of benefits)
-I’m willing to pay support for 1 year retroactive to date of separation (may 2017) because:
-marriage/cohabitation for only 5 months? (Goes back to my original question on marriage length, see above)
-compensatory claim is weak because any sacrifices she made professionally (i.e. taking care of our daughter) prior to our reconciliation was explicitly let go when she completely withdrew her earlier claims.
-any considerations for future compensatory grounds should also be minimum as she has already demonstrated that she can attended full-time school while the child is in daycare (she attended English classes for 4 months). The child can also be in daycare while she is working i.e. taking care of child is not a hindrance to her professional advancement. Therefore, ongoing/future care for the child should not hinder her professionally and hence she should not be compensated financially for that.
-non-compensatory basis: I agree there is a “needs” component to her claim as she is on social assistance. This proposed amount of $1,100 per month plus CS of $870 (based on my full income) will easily meet her monthly expenses as evident from her Financial statement.
-I should not have to pay her any more than proposed amount since spousal support is intended to ease her financial burdens upon breakdown of marriage and not to help her build capital.
- if she does not agree with this offer, which I am pretty sure she wouldn’t, then I can also propose to pay her college tuition cost (around $10,000) -> this will also meet the objective of promoting her self-sufficiency rather than simply handing out cash to her.
-how should I make sure she does not come back and seek more support if say she never goes to college, takes longer to finish school, goes abroad to her family for an extended amount, etc? what should be the legal wording?
I thank you all in advance for taking the time to read this and providing insights.
I'm presently in litigation for almost a year and there are still outstanding financial claims... haven't even moved to parenting/custody/access negotiations yet.
In this post, im looking to get advice on settling financial claims (CS, S7 and SS).
Here are the facts:
Husband/Me = 28 years old
Wife = 29 years old
-married abroad in late 2013
-wife arrived in canada as PR in spring 2015
-1st separation in late 2015 after 8 months of cohabitation
-Daughter (2 years old now) born while we were separated
-wife moved court seeking CS, SS and sole custody in Feb 2016
-we reconciled after 11 months of separation (wife completely withdrew all her claims of CS, SS, etc)
-after 5 months of cohabitation, we separated again in may 2017
-wife recommenced court application seeking CS, SS retroactive to may 2017 and sole custody
Clarification on facts
a) since there was an earlier legal separation and subsequent reconciliation, is the duration of my marriage considered to be 3.5 years or 5 months (from time of reconciliation until present separation) or 2.5 years (total marriage length minus duration of 1st separation)?
Financial situation
Prior to separation (may 2017)/throughout the marriage, my annual income was around 40,000.
1 month after separation, I found a job in the US, where my annual income increased more than 3 times.
2014-2016 – 40,000 annual
2017 – 96,000 (mix of Cdn and post sep. US income) + 42,000 (non-taxable employee expenses reimbursement/not included as income per US/Canada tax rules)
2018 (estimate) – 110,000 + 75,000 (non-taxable employee expenses reimbursement/not included as income per US/Canada tax rules)
Wife
- was a housewife, currently on Ontario Works (social assistance)
-claims she is new to Canada (even after 3 years), looking to go to college to upgrade her education (no proof provided)
-never sought employment while in Canada (at least not that I am aware of)
Child Support
-At our first case conference, I entered into a consent order based on an income of 141,600 (I estimated this amount and, at the time, didn’t know that I should not include the non-taxable portion as income).
-the order also stated that this order shall be reviewable at end of June 2018 (I insisted to add this clause knowing that my actual 2017 may be different than what I have estimated).
How should I proceed now?
-now that I have an accurate figure of $96,000 as 2017 income (not including 42,000 non-taxable portion), I want to ask for credit for the overpayments that I have been making, is it likely to hold up in court? Can the other party claim that I consented to an amount of 141,600, so too bad?
Section 7 – daycare expense
-At our first case conference, I agreed to pay full cost of $1,144 for 1 month of daycare, which I have already done so.
-Although not explicitly included in the order, I did this with the understanding that my wife will provide me with the receipt. Sure enough (I learned the hard way), nothing yet has been provided till date while she keeps making further demands for daycare payments.
-the judge ordered a motion for s7 daycare claim for jun 2018 but her lawyer keeps sending letters and threatening motion and asking me to pay.
-last month, she sent me receipt wherein she paid the full amount of last month daycare but has not provided proof that this is necessary expense (her full-time school has ended).
What should be my course of action? Motion for disclosure i.e. subsidy info, evidence this is necessary expense, etc? OR ignore it as the onus should be on her to prove this is a necessary expense?
-notwithstanding above, I have also proposed to her that my parents take care of our daughter when she needs someone else to take care of our daughter. She outright rejected it and I didn’t really push further since she has made serious allegations of abuse against me and all my family members and I fear she would continue to do so especially when presently I'm not even in Canada.
Spousal Support
-this is most tricky for me. I agree she is entitled to spousal support. I am also aware that I need to meet her financial needs for 3 years after she arrived in Canada (this sponsorship undertaking period ended in mar 2018).
- her claim is retroactive to may 2017
- I have not paid her any spousal support yet primarily because there is uncertainty in my US employment and I did not want to enter into an order on such a huge income.
-the uncertainty is that there is a pending criminal charge of assault (as she alleged on the date of separation) and I’m concerned that a conviction may impact my US employment.
Based on SSAG with child formula, my income 96,000 / wife income 0, the calculator suggests $1,753 (low end) to $2,258 (high end) with 5-16 years.
I’ve been thinking about offering the following settlement, please help me evaluate objectively if it is reasonable and/or offer additional suggestions:
-I’m willing to pay her $1,100 per month (high end based on income of $75,000 / wife $10,000) because:
-as per OSPE (a professional body in Ontario) 2017 compensation survey, $75,000 is the national average salary of a professional with same level of experience as me.
-this also happens to be the midpoint of my average income of $40,000 during marriage and POST separation income of around $110,000.
-the social assistance/tax benefits that she is receiving should be treated as income for spousal support purposes -> this is maybe around $10,000 – 15,000 (she didn’t provide her 2017 statement of benefits)
-I’m willing to pay support for 1 year retroactive to date of separation (may 2017) because:
-marriage/cohabitation for only 5 months? (Goes back to my original question on marriage length, see above)
-compensatory claim is weak because any sacrifices she made professionally (i.e. taking care of our daughter) prior to our reconciliation was explicitly let go when she completely withdrew her earlier claims.
-any considerations for future compensatory grounds should also be minimum as she has already demonstrated that she can attended full-time school while the child is in daycare (she attended English classes for 4 months). The child can also be in daycare while she is working i.e. taking care of child is not a hindrance to her professional advancement. Therefore, ongoing/future care for the child should not hinder her professionally and hence she should not be compensated financially for that.
-non-compensatory basis: I agree there is a “needs” component to her claim as she is on social assistance. This proposed amount of $1,100 per month plus CS of $870 (based on my full income) will easily meet her monthly expenses as evident from her Financial statement.
-I should not have to pay her any more than proposed amount since spousal support is intended to ease her financial burdens upon breakdown of marriage and not to help her build capital.
- if she does not agree with this offer, which I am pretty sure she wouldn’t, then I can also propose to pay her college tuition cost (around $10,000) -> this will also meet the objective of promoting her self-sufficiency rather than simply handing out cash to her.
-how should I make sure she does not come back and seek more support if say she never goes to college, takes longer to finish school, goes abroad to her family for an extended amount, etc? what should be the legal wording?
I thank you all in advance for taking the time to read this and providing insights.
Comment