Government of Canada increases the Federal Child Support Guidelines dealing with
the Universal Child Care Benefit.
Updated April 4, 2007
In 2006, the Government of Canada passed the
Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB) in the amount of $100/month for all
families with a child under the age of 6.
The
purpose is to allow families to choose the child
care (daycare) option that best suits them and to
apply the UCCB to that cost.
Under s. 7(1)(a) of the Federal Child Support
Guidelines (FCSG), child daycare
costs are considered to be a special or
extraordinary expense. As such, the costs are to be
shared between the parents in proportion to their
income - s.7(2).
Under s.7(3), the courts are required to take into
consideration any subsidies, benefits or income
tax deductions or credits available to the parents
before apportioning each parent's share of the child
care expense. It is logical that the new UCCB, being
a subsidy for daycare and/or a benefit would
also be applied to this section.
The Government of Canada sees otherwise.
The new s.7(4) of the FCSG which came into force on
April 1, 2007 specifically excludes the UCCB from
being considered under s.7(3):
"2. Subsection 7(3) of the Guidelines is
replaced by the following:
(3) Subject to subsection (4), in determining
the amount of an expense referred to in
subsection (1), the court must take into account
any subsidies, benefits or income tax deductions
or credits relating to the expense, and any
eligibility to claim a subsidy, benefit or
income tax deduction or credit relating to the
expense.
(4) In determining the amount of an expense
referred to in subsection (1), the court shall
not take into account any universal child care
benefit or any eligibility to claim that
benefit."
It is already bad enough that the courts routinely
fail to consider the income tax decrease the support
recipient receives by claiming the child care costs
(which the support payor cannot, no matter how much he/she is paying to
this expense), the increase to the GST rebate and
the increase to the CCTB. Now a benefit that is set
up to directly help with the expenses of child
daycare is specifically excluded from determining
the actual amount of that special or extraordinary
expense.
The reason is very simple. The vast majority of
support recipients are females who have their own
government subsidized lobby groups. There
isn't a government funded men's lobby group and men
are the vast majority of support payors.
Section below from The Canada Gazzette
link Description
The Universal Child Care Benefit Act,
implementing the Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB),
came into force on July 1, 2006, as part of An
Act to Implement Certain Provisions of the Budget
Tabled in Parliament on May 2, 2006.
The UCCB is a new form of direct financial
assistance of $100 per month per child under the age
of six. It is paid to a child's primary caregiver
and is taxable in the hands of the spouse or
common-law partner living in that household with the
lower net income, regardless of which spouse or
common-law partner received the payments. As a
result, the UCCB could be included in a spouse's
income when determining child support under the
Federal Child Support Guidelines (Federal
Guidelines).
The Federal Guidelines are regulations under the
Divorce Act. They consist of a set of rules
and tables to be used in the determination of child
support. They are based on the principle that
spouses have a joint financial obligation to
maintain the children of the marriage in accordance
with their ability to contribute.
Under the Federal Guidelines, 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
is adjusted in accordance with Schedule III of the
Guidelines "Adjustments to Income". The Federal
Guidelines do not currently include a provision for
the UCCB to be deducted from income. Therefore, the
UCCB that spouses include in their total income for
taxation purposes will also be included in their
income when that income is relevant to the
determination of child support. Including the UCCB
in income has various effects on the determination
of child support pursuant to the Federal Guidelines:
for example, it could mean that in some instances
the UCCB provided for one child will be considered
in determining the child support amount to be paid
for another child. These effects are considered to
be inconsistent with the purpose of the UCCB.
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