My Support Calculator Weirdness with shared custody

K

Knave

New member
Was helping a friend do some calculations. His ex makes zero dollars, has been a stay at home parent for the better part of 20 years.

Calculator shows him paying less money (CS + midrange SS) if he has no custody of his 2 kids than if he has shared custody.

I know that in theory ex should be making money, etc, but I was just wondering why the support calculator would make such a blatant error? Once you put in a minimal amount for the ex ($20,000) the numbers become a lot more reasonable.
 
Don't quote me on this, but SS is often hinged on the amount of CS being paid, so if the Mom has majority of access, he would pay more CS, but less SS, if he has shared custody he would pay less CS but more SS. The calculations for CS and SS are different, which is why there would be such a difference in numbers.
 
Nope. That discrepancy is because of the tax benefit/hst credit/whatever crap. CRA thinks that the money should go 50/50, the program thinks that what the payor gets back from the CRA should be redistributed and given to the recipient.

But if your friend is willing to give up the shared custody and make himself to be a weekend clown to save $200 a month, then he is f*cked up. I hope this is not the case.
 
Don't rely on online calculators - they don't have any legal force. Your friend can figure out what his child support obligations are by using the (legally forceful) Federal Child Support Guidelines. Google them and you'll get an online calculator where he can input his and his ex's incomes, and find out what he would be paying if he had shared residency (not custody) or if his ex has primary residency. You can't assume that his ex will be making zero dollars (unless she's disabled or incapable of working) so you could input what her income would be at minimum wage, full time.

Spousal support should be negotiated separately from child support. There are no hard and fast rules, though if his ex was raising children at home for 20 years while he was building a career, he probably won't be able to avoid it. Online calculators can give you a rough idea of what kind of money he might be looking at, but individual mileage varies a lot.
 
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