Divorce Mate: Critically Important Factors

Perhaps the biggest mistake that people make when using DivorceMate and even the guidelines is the assumption that whatever amounts are produced must be correct. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth.

Users who are not properly familiar with the guidelines could end up leaving important income items out. This ends up skewing the outcomes and may lead to incorrect support projections.

There are several other problems that may be encountered in using DivorceMate or the guidelines. Here are some of these problems and tips to avoid them.

While correct, claiming that Guideline income isn’t “Line 150” (now Line 15000, which doesn’t have the same ring to it) because it isn’t specified that way in the Child Support Guidelines isn’t a helpful response to dispelling the pervasive fallacy hurting family law practise. Between “Line 150” and the Guideline definition of income, there are two major distinctions to consider:

One of the stated goals of the Child Support Guidelines is to guarantee that children “continue to benefit from both spouses’ financial means following divorce.” According to Section 2(3) of the Federal Child Support Guidelines,

“Where any amount is established for the purposes of these Guidelines on the basis of specified information, the most current information must be used.”

“Line 150” represents the income tax definition of “total income” for income tax purposes, not child support purposes. After the fact, tax returns are prepared and filed. They reflect, at best, the previous year’s or even older year’s reported income for tax reasons. They do not reflect the person’s actual income position or ability to provide child support unless nothing has changed. Furthermore, for establishing a party’s personal tax liability, “Line 150” is the starting point.

This obligation is distinct from the party’s responsibility to support their children.

Section 16 of the Federal Child Support Guidelines states, “Subject to sections 17 through 20, a spouse’s annual income is determined using the sources of income set out under the heading “Total income” in the T1 General form issued by the Canada Revenue Agency and adjusted in accordance with Schedule III.” (Italics added) In order to apply the proper adjustments stated in Schedule III, you must first determine the various sources.

The sum at “Line 150,” for example, may be $110,000. If “Line 150” is made up entirely of employment income with no further modifications, such as union dues, “Line 150” and Guideline income are equal. However, if “Line 150” is made up of $30,000 in employment income and $80,000 in taxable eligible Canadian dividends, the total income is still $110,000, but Guideline income is $87,971 (after any other considerations or adjustments).

It’s easy to summarise detail while working with numbers and formulas, but it’s much more difficult to construct the correct detail from a summary. Details matter when it comes to calculating fair and equitable child and spousal support. The improper amounts submitted into the wrong data input areas will not provide the correct results, even when utilising powerful support calculating software like DivorceMate.