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Proportional offset for child support and impact to total support

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  • Proportional offset for child support and impact to total support

    Some recent experience I wish to share.

    stbx & I went through mediation. I raised the idea of child support payments not following straight offset, and instead be proportional to access. Thanks Tayken for your help in pointing to prior case law: http://canlii.ca/t/29rsd

    After describing the approach on paper, the mediator agreed this would be a more fair (mathematically sound) approach to child support payments. They also said nobody had ever described this scenario to them in their years of family law. They used the updated child support value in DivorceMate, which calculated a new amount for spousal support.

    I was caught off-guard by the number that came out, though in retrospect I should have expected it. The goal the mediator was looking to meet is 50/50 net disposable income. Child support is non-taxable, but spousal support is. So in order to meet the goal of 50/50 NDI, for every dollar removed from child support, more than a dollar will be added to spousal. This usually will be a net advantage in regards to taxes (total increase in NDI), if you can afford the payments until then.

    The above may not be applicable to your situation, but the good news here, to me, is that when explained, proportional offset did make sense to a family law professional. Though they did caution that at divorce time, the judge is going to expect straight offset, and will need a good description for any deviation.

    Hope this helps!

  • #2
    Great to see a half-offset system in action. I've always thought it was more fair than the usual system.

    What I don't like to see is SS and CS linked. Well, really, I've never liked most SS setups at all. I think it's perfectly okay for two households to have different NDI. That's just how life is sometimes.

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    • #3
      Linking of CS & SS: I guess it also depends on the relative incomes and ability of each to be financially independent. For my scenario, I don't believe there'd be a way around it.

      Best case scenario would be when both make enough to be self-sufficient, where SS can almost become a moot point. But in those cases, CS amount from one to the other carries a chance of being relatively low.

      I'd have more of a problem with an agreement that enforced equal NDI for the duration.

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      • #4
        don't equalize NDI
        deduct your expenses of working tooo...

        It's great to have equal NDI but then when you have to work and commute she she is working at burger king down the street or banging the mailman then she will be earning way more than you . There is also a bonus that the working spouse gets for real work compared to the one who works less. 50/50 NDI isn't standard as far as I know. It can be 55/45, 60/40 etc... especially in shared custody where she doesn't have additional future care of the children responsibilities....

        Consider that S7 will eat at your income faster than hers because its based on PRE-SUPPORT income at the end you will be the poor one.

        Also please tell me this includes all the government handouts etc... she will be getting with her "low income" since CS will not be "income" for her.

        Assume the system is rigged against you and analyze everything to the end....
        Last edited by Links17; 07-15-2016, 01:39 PM.

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