Ontario Family Law Blog : Barrie Lawyer & Attorney Brian Galbraith : Simcoe County, Canada Divorce, Separation, and Collaborative Law

Guest post by our lawyer John Ewen

People will often say to me when I first meet them for a consultation “My ex and I are trying to figure out a fair amount of child support, but we’re stuck. Do we just use the Table?”

As with many questions about the law, the answer is: “It depends”.

The ‘Table’ refers to the table of Federal Child Support Guidelines. This is essentially a big chart that shows what payments parents make based on their income level and the number of children they are paying support for.

When Child Support is Paid

But when do you use it? The answer is, when children are considered to be residing ‘primarily’ with one parent (60% of the time or more), the law assumes that parent is bearing most of the costs of raising the children.

The idea behind the Table is to determine an amount the other parent (who has the children less than 40% of the time) should pay to make their ‘fair contribution’ to those costs of raising the kids.

But what happens if the children reside more than 40% of the time with both parents? How is child support determined then? Do we still use the Table?

Well, the answer is yes, but often times the Table amount is modified (reduced). This reflects the fact that when children live with both parents more than 40% of the time, they really have two homes, often with similar expenses (both homes need groceries for the kids, beds, furniture, toys and so forth).

Both of those households will have expenses in raising the children. That’s why having one parent pay the full Table amount in this situation isn’t always fair. To find out how child support is calculated in this situation, go to this article. 

How Do We Count 40% ?

Okay, so we know there is a threshold of 40%, and if your children live with you more than that, it’s ‘Shared Custody’ – child support is dealt with differently than the Table.

But who determines what 40% really means? How do we count it?

A lot of people ask me this. I get questions like:

“My children spend 3 days a week with me – 3 days out of 7 days in the week is 43% - isn’t this Shared Custody?”

“My kids spend more waking hours with me than with their other parent. That meets the test, right?”

“Whose custody are they in when they are at school or activities? If at the end of the day they are sleeping over at my house, isn’t all of that day considered time with me?”

The answer is, there is no clear answer! Different lawyers and Judges determine Shared Custody in different ways. Some Judges count only where the child puts their head down to sleep at night, some count the hours spent with each parent, some include school time or time spent at extracurricular activities, some just count the actual time spent at that parent’s home.

Many cases are disputed very far in our Court system because of this ambiguity. The Ontario Court of Appeal released a decision in 2005 called Froom v. Froom. This was an appeal from a Trial Judge’s decision to a higher Court.

The father had won at the Trial level because the Judge found he met the 40% threshold based on the number of days his children resided with him. On the appeal though, it was acknowledged that if the Trial Judge had counted the hours, and not days spent with the Father, he would not have met the 40% (and so would have paid Table support).

But the Court of Appeal upheld the Trial Judge’s decision – they said that there is no universally accepted method for determining the 40%. They said the Trial Judge’s method (counting days instead of hours) was consistent with what many Judges do – try to avoid rigid calculations and instead look at the bigger picture.

What does this mean for the rest of us? It means there is no right or wrong way to calculate the 40% rule. If you and your spouse are not able to reach an agreement on whether you have Shared Custody, a judge may have a lot of discretion to in deciding it.  

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Do you remember the day you separated? How did it happen? Was a note left or an email sent to say it's over? Maybe a text? Maybe it was a screaming match? Maybe it was just a sad mutual realization that your marriage was over?

Regardless of how it happens, the date of separation is a painful memory, whether you are the one leaving or the one being left. 

I remember my "date of separation". It was over seven years ago but the memory of that day remains vivid in my heart and mind today. Each year, when the anniversary of it comes around, I cannot help but think of how dramatically my life changed since the date of my separation. 

From a lawyer's perspective, we need to know the date of separation for three main reasons. This first reason is we use it to determine the equalization of property. Here is an article about the equalization process.  Secondly, you can obtain a divorce one year after your separation. The clock starts ticking from the date of separation. Lastly, if support is owed, it likely will begin from the date of separation. 

You can still be living under the same roof but considered separated so determining the date of separation can sometimes be difficult. 

Property Issues

Some times the date of separation can have a huge impact on the equalization of property. I remember one client who had some shares in a business. If he used one date, he would owe his wife about $10,000 related to the value of his shares. If he used a date three months later, he would have to give her $30,000, because the value of the shares had rapidly increased over that three month period. 

The reverse is sometimes true. You might prefer an earlier date because the value of your spouse's asset was much higher than it is at a future date. This certainly has been the case recently with some businesses and real estate investments that have been dropping in value. 

The value of jointly owned assets is less relevant because any increase in value or decrease in value from the date of separation is shared. 

Divorce

Although it is possible to get a divorce on the basis of adultery or physical/emotional abuse, the vast majority of people seek a divorce simply on the basis of a one year separation. It is easy and does not involve any blame. 

Support

The date of separation is relevant to support issues too. Support is owed from the date of separation unless there are other payments being made in lieu of direct support payments. 

Here is an article about child support and another one about spousal support. 

Determining the Date of Separation

If there is some ambiguity about the true "date of separation", the law says you should look at the circumstances of the parties. For example, when did one of the parties communicate their intention to end the marriage to the other; when did the parties start to hold themselves out to family and friends as being separated; when were finances separated; when did sexual relations stop; when were chores were no longer shared; when did the parties physically separate (two beds or two homes); when did the parties stop doing social activities together such as eating meals together or attending events together. This is not an exhaustive list but gives you an idea of the factors taken into consideration.  You don't have to have all of these factors to say there has been a separation. It just depends. 

If you are not sure which date to use, consider whether it will impact the bottom line. Maybe compromising on the date is better than fighting over it if the impact is fairly small. 

Regardless of what date is called the Date of Separation for the property and support issues, no doubt there will be a day you will always remember as the day you knew your marriage was truly over. Perhaps that is the "emotional date of separation". That date is important because it marks the beginning of the healing process. It is the first day of the rest of your new life. 

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In Ontario, child support can be changed if there is a change in circumstances such as a change in income or a change in residence of the children. Here are the steps. 

The first step is to determine the payor's income. (The "payor" is the person who has the children less than 40% of the time and is paying child support.) For employees, use line 150 of the income tax return. If they have recently changed jobs or your income has changed, you have to use the actual present income.

If the children are with each parent more than 40%, different rules apply. This is called "Shared Custody". Here is an article that explains the process. 

If the payor is self-employed, determining her or his income can be more complicated. Here is an article for you.

If you have  "Split Custody", child support is calculated differently. "Split Custody" means that each parent has one or more children residing primarily with them. For example, Dad and Mom have three children. Frankie and Tommy live primarily with Dad and see Mom every second weekend whereas Suzy lives primarily with Mom and sees Dad every second weekend.  

Here is how you calculate child support if you have split custody . 

If the children are with one parent more than 40% of the time, then the other parent pays according to the Child Support Guidelines. It is a grid that prescribes the amount of support to be paid.

To look up the amount of child support according to the Guidelines, go here.  

When you look it up, you  have to ensure you are using the correct grid for the province where the payor lives, the payor's income and the number of children. It's pretty easy to look up.

In addition to the base amount of child support according to the grid, if your children have "extraordinary" costs related to extra curricular activities, these costs are shared in proportion to the gross annual income of the parents.

For example, if your child is on an elite competitive swim team, competing in swim meets across the province and receiving coaching, the costs of this sport will be shared but if your child is just taking some swim lessons at the YMCA, the costs are not shared. The recipient of child support is to pay the costs of the swim lessons from the child support.

In addition, the cost of medical expenses, the after-tax cost of daycare, summer camps and post secondary education costs are among the costs shared. There are other costs that are considered "extraordinary" and are shared.

Once you have determined the amount of child support, you can change the existing agreement by consent. If you can't reach an agreement, you may have to go to Court.

You are wise to speak to a lawyer to ensure you do the variation correctly. You can do either a Variation of Separation Agreement or a Variation of a Court Order. If is it not done correctly, it won't be legally enforceable. It is easy to do it with a little help from a lawyer. 

If you have to go to Court, we can help. We frequently meet with clients and help them create all of the legal documents necessary to do a variation. It usually takes our lawyers about two hours to complete all of the documentation. Clients tell us this is a very good investment.

A lawyer can represent you in Court if you wish. Of course, having a lawyer at your side is best but it is costly. You have to weigh the costs versus the benefits.

In some cases, you can retroactively adjust child support. Generally, the Court will go back 3 years depending on the circumstances.

Much of family law is "shades of gray". Child support is more straight forward than many areas of the law. It really is not an issue that needs a judge to determine. With some legal advice, you should be able to resolve the amount of child support by agreement. If you are unsure, meet with a lawyer and get some advice.

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Can you imagine receiving a $150,000 per month, tax free? Karen Sala certainly could and sued Keanu Reeves hoping he would be ordered to pay that tidy sum to her. She was not successful.

A recent article in The Star declares that the paternity case against Keanu Reeves by Sala was dismissed by the Ontario Courts. According to The Star, Justice Graham declared that the allegations against Reeves were "so incredible" that no reasonable judge would accept them.  The judge said having a trial would be a waste of limited judicial time.

Karen Sala was seeking $3 million a month in spousal support and $150,000 a month in retroactive child support. She alleged that Reeves was the father of her four adult children.

It is remarkable that she pushed the case this far. DNA tests had been done which indicated that Reeves was not likely the father of the children. DNA tests cannot say with full certainty if somneone is the father but they are accurate 99.9999% of the time. Usually, that's good enough for the judges to dismiss the case as happened in this case.

As Ms A.J. Jakubowska notes in her blog, child support payments in Ontario are not tax deductible for the payor and the recipient does not have to claim them as income. Sala would have been able to pocket $1.8 million dollars per year, tax free, had she won her case.

How is the amount of child support determined? 

Child support payments are set in accord with the Federal Child Support Guidelines. For Ms Sala to have received $150,000 per month, she would have had to prove that Reeves' income was about $8.5 million annually. I guess that's possible...

As Ms Jakubowska, a Newmarket family lawyer, notes in her blog, spousal support is tax deductible to the payor and must be claimed as income to the recipient. So, if Sala had been successful, Reeves would have been able to deduct the spousal support from his income but not the child support.

Certainly there is an incentive to sue for child support when the stakes can be this high but DNA tests constitute a mountain too high to overcome. You can't just allege someone is the father of your children these days expect to get away with it. If you are lying, science will prove you wrong. How DNA tests work is a sample of hair from the father, mother and child are analyzed in a lab. The DNA of the child is compared to the DNA of the "alleged" parents to determine if paternity is possible. Courts like the certainty of DNA tests.  They normally end the case one way or another.

Ms Sala was tenacious. She persisted in court. She lost. Case closed. Next? .....

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Child support in Ontario divorce cases is determined by the Federal Child Support Guidelines. It's simple. You take your income as set out at Line 150 of your income tax return and look up your obligation according to the number of children you have. Voila. 

But... and this is important... if your children are with you more than 40% of the time (that's called "shared custody"), you can get a break on the amount of child support. Okay. Sounds simple. But how do you count the time: in hours or days or what? 

In Andrew Feldstein's blog titled, Toronto Family Lawyers' Blog, he summarized an interesting case called Froom vs Froom, which is supposed to help give us direction on how to "count time". The Court of Appeals of Ontario says, generally, you should just count "days". So, if the kids are with you 6 out of 14 days, then you have them 43% of the time, and you have met the threshold. You may pay a different amount of child support than prescribed by the Federal Child Support Guidelines.  

Unfortunately, the Ontario Court of Appeal also says if a judge counts hours or uses some other method to "count time" it can be acceptable. So, the Froom vs Froom decision doesn't resolve the uncertainty. 

The age old adage may now be "More time means less money".

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