What’s been changed?
The Alberta Child Support Guidelines (Alberta Guidelines) has been changed as of July
1, 2009. The change may affect you if:
a) you are paying child support or are receiving child support and your income is
relevant to the child support calculation; and
b) you claim an “elected split-pension amount” that was transferred to you by your
spouse or common-law partner for income tax purposes under the pension income
splitting program.
What are the Alberta Child Support Guidelines?
The Alberta Guidelines is a Regulation under the Family Law Act. It is a set of rules and
tables used to determine the amount of child support to be paid in Family Law Act
applications.
Does this amendment apply if I pay child support under the Divorce Act?
The Federal Government has enacted a similar amendment to the Federal Child Support
Guidelines. The Federal Child Support Guidelines is used to determine child support
under the Divorce Act. If your child support order was made pursuant to a Divorce
Judgment or other order in a divorce proceeding, the change to the Federal Child Support
Guidelines may apply.
What is meant by “elected split-pension amount” and “pension income splitting”?
Since 2007, the Income Tax Act has allowed pensioners to transfer part of their eligible
pension income to their spouse or common-law partner for income tax purposes. The
spouse or common-law partner would then claim this elected split-pension amount as
income.
How were the Guidelines changed?
As of July 1, 2009, if you claim an elected split-pension amount transferred from your
spouse or common-law partner for income tax purposes, the amendment will allow you to
deduct that amount from your total income when you use the Alberta Guidelines to
calculate child support.
Without the amendment, the Alberta Guidelines would require you to include this splitpension
amount as income when calculating child support. This is because it is included
in total income shown on line 150 of the income tax form.