Archive for the ‘Child Support’ Category

If you are the payor of child support, you may also have to contribute to your child’s hockey fees and daycare expenses on top of making your monthly child support payment. These expenses may fall into the category of “special or extraordinary expenses”, which is defined in Section 7 of the Child Support Guidelines. Another name for “special or extraordinary expenses” is “section 7 expenses” or “add ons”. If an expense is determined to be a “special or extraordinary expense” under section 7 of the Child Support Guidelines, the cost is generally shared between the parents, proportionate to income, after the appropriate tax deductions are subtracted.

Pursuant to section 7 of the Child Support Guidelines, a court may apportion the net cost of certain “special or extraordinary expenses”, so long as they are reasonable and necessary, having regard to the best interests of the child. The list of what may constitute a “special and extraordinary expense” is exhaustive. It includes items such as child care expenses that are incurred as a result of the custodial parent’s employment, disability, illness or educational training, medical, dental and some other health-related expenses, extraordinary educational expenses, post-secondary educational expenses, and extraordinary expenses for extra-curricular activities.

Although the law is not entirely clear on whether the expenses listed in the paragraph above are “extraordinary”, the trend is to consider the family’s expenses in relation to income. Generally, a child will have some small fees for extraordinary activities, and these would not require additional child support.

In order to determine whether you should be paying or receiving additional child support for your child’s special or extraordinary expenses, please contact one of the lawyers in our Family Law Department.