What is the test for imputing income to a spouse for child support purposes?

British Columbia, Canada


The following excerpt is from Kwan v Lai, 2018 BCSC 1280 (CanLII):

As pointed out in Bright v. Brown, 2018 BCSC 560, certain fundamental principles of law apply to all child support matters: 1. a parent-child relationship is a fiduciary relationship of presumed dependency and the obligation of both parents to support the child arises at birth; 2. parents have a joint and ongoing legal obligation to support their children in a way that is commensurate to their income; 3. child support is the right of the child, not of the parent seeking support on the child's behalf; 4. support payments are based on earning capacity are not just on what a parent actually earns; 5. as a result, a parent has a legal obligation to earn as much he or she is reasonably capable of earning so the children can receive an appropriate level of support; 6. a parent does not fulfil his/her obligation to his/her children if (s)he does not increase child support payments when his/her income increases significantly; 7. for reasons of predictability and consistency, parliament has mandated the determination of a spouse's annual income for child support purposes to be made with reference to "total income" in the income tax return as adjusted, i.e. income not capital (or capital assets); 8. a payor is not generally expected to sell capital assets such as a home for the purpose of generating income from which to pay support; 9. s. 19 of the Guidelines provides a non-exhaustive list of circumstances in which the court can exercise its discretion to impute income to a spouse for child support purposes; and 10. such circumstances include situations where the spouse is intentionally under-employed or unemployed or where a spouse is not reasonably utilizing property to generate income.

Other Questions


Is a party’s income for income tax purposes considered income for purposes of determining child support obligations? (British Columbia, Canada)
How is child support calculated when the income of a spouse is less than the income required for child support? (British Columbia, Canada)
Can a court impute additional income to a spouse who unreasonably deducts expenses for child support purposes? (British Columbia, Canada)
What is the test for imputing income to both spouses for purposes of child and spousal support? (British Columbia, Canada)
Does the fact that an expense relates to an extracurricular activity bring the amount of child support under s. 7 of the Child Support Guidelines (e.g. expenses) into s.7 of the child support table? (British Columbia, Canada)
What is the test for imputing income to either or both spouses for the purposes of determining child and spousal support? (British Columbia, Canada)
What is the test for imputing income to either or both of the spouses for child and spousal support purposes? (British Columbia, Canada)
What is the test for imputing income to either spouse for child and spousal support purposes? (British Columbia, Canada)
What is the case law regarding child support for the purposes of determining child support? (British Columbia, Canada)
Can a court impute income to a spouse or former spouse under section 19 of the Income Tax Guidelines? (British Columbia, Canada)
X



Alexi white


"The most advanced legal research software ever built."

Trusted by top litigators from across North America.