About child support in Canada

Child support guidelines
The regulations for setting child support payments under the federal Divorce Act are called the Federal Child Support Guidelines. The guidelines consist of a set of rules and tables for calculating the amount of support that a paying parent should contribute towards his or her children.

The Federal Child Support Guidelines were amended on May 1, 2006. These amendments include updated Federal Child Support Tables to reflect changes to provincial, territorial and federal tax rates.

The Federal Child Support Guidelines were also amended on April 1, 2007. The amendments relate to the Universal Child Care Benefit. For more information on the amendments, please visit this site.

Tax treatment
Changes to the tax treatment of child support came into effect May 1, 1997. Under the changes, child support is no longer taxable in the hands of the receiving parent and no longer deductible in the hands of the paying parent. For information on tax rules, please contact the Canada Revenue Agency at 1-800-959-8281. Ask for publication P102.

Enforcement measures
Along with the introduction of the guidelines, the federal government amended other federal laws to provide the provinces and territories (which are primarily responsible for enforcement) with additional tools for collecting child support.