CHILD SUPPORT RECALCULATION PROGRAM
Starting January 01,2010, Court Orders under the Family Law Act of Alberta can be registered with the Child Support Recalculation Program (RP). The purpose of RP is to annually recalculate the amount of support payable on existing eligible Court Orders without the necessity of a new court application. Instead, both those paying and receiving support can ‘opt in’ to have the RP review each party’s tax returns, notices of assessment/ reassessment or income questionnaire and determine the proper amount of section 3 and section 7 child support for the forthcoming year.
The RP will contact the payor and recipient approximately ninety days before the anniversary date of the court order and request that the parties submit their income information. Once received, the program office will calculate the new support amounts and send a decision to the parties. A party may object if they do not agree with the new amount. If there is no objection, the new amount will become the new child support amount payable 31 days following the decision. If a payor chooses to not send his or her information upon request from RP, their income will be imputed subject to a ‘deemed’ income increase percentage. If there is no objection after 31 days, RP will file the decision with the court, allowing Maintenance Enforcement to collect on the new support amount.
RP charges each party $75.00 for the service of recalculating the child support amount; however, if the change in child support amount is less than 10% or $10.00 per month, RP will not recalculate the child support amount and no fee is charged.
Eligibility for RP is as follows:
- The Order is under the Family Law Act (note: Orders under the Divorce Act are not yet eligible for registration)
- Both parties’ incomes were known at the time of the Order — neither party can have an imputed income.
- The Order is not ‘without prejudice’ or based on a ‘pre-disclosure amount’
- The Order does not have a review date
- Section 7 expenses must be stated in a percentage or be proportionate to the parties’ known incomes
- The recalculation can be done by use of Income Tax Returns, Notices of Assessment, and the income questionnaire—people who are sole proprietors or use extensive corporate documents to determine their annual income cannot use the program, unless both parties consent to using only the tax return information.
A difficulty with the program is that the new recalculation statement will not include arrears for previous months where the payor underpaid support prior to the court order anniversary date.
Parties who have court orders currently eligible for RP can opt into the program as of January 01,2010, although Orders shall be entered into the system with preference given to older Orders first. RP plans to have the system online within one year so that parties can submit their income information and access their accounts electronically.
More information on the Recalculation Program can be found online at www.recalculation.gov.ab.ca or by sending questions after December 01,2009 at recalculation@gov.ab.ca.