Eligible Dependent Claims and The Shared Custody Situation

Eligible Dependent Claims and The Shared Custody Situation

Topic: Family Law April 19, 2017 by Carol Cochrane

A parent is able to claim the eligible dependent credit when they complete their Income Tax Return if the parent is single, divorced, separated and not supporting his/her spouse, and has a dependent child under the age of 19 who the parent is supporting. The ability to make that claim can allow the parent to realize some considerable tax savings.

So if you are a separated parent with one or more children living under a shared custody arrangement, are you eligible to claim this credit? The answer is maybe…and only if you’re careful how you address your support payment obligations!

The Canada Revenue Agency has indicated in the Income Tax and Benefit Guide that where a child lives with both parents throughout the year and where both parents are paying support, the parents can agree on who will claim the eligible dependent credit. In the absence of an agreement, neither would be able to make the claim.

For years, family law lawyers have drafted Separation Agreements in a way as to address the requirements of CRA. Shared custody arrangements often resulted in domestic contracts including a provision that identified a “setoff” payment type arrangement. The Separation Agreement would include language along the lines of:

The higher income earning parent will pay the lower income earning parent the table amount otherwise prescribed based on his/her income. The lower income earning parent will pay the higher income earning parent the table amount otherwise prescribed at his/her income. For convenience, and to avoid the need of payments having to be exchanged, the parties agree that the higher income earning parent will pay to the lower income earning parent the difference, or setoff amount, otherwise calculated.

Sadly, this may not be enough.

The Tax Court has determined that under that framework, the higher income earner will not be able to make the eligible dependent claim, regardless of what the parties’ Agreement may provide. Based upon a very strict reading of the provisions of the Income Tax Act, the Tax Court has determined that a setoff type arrangement is not sufficient to allow the credit to be claimed by the parent who is ultimately writing the cheque under that setoff arrangement.

Justice Bocock indicated in his decision:

“The engagement of the [terms of the Income Tax Act] requires a comprehensive documentary and evidentiary record. If separating spouses … wish to avail themselves of a dependent deduction for both spouses in such situations, surely family law lawyers could deploy their usual flexible skills to ignore the setoff provisions … and effect actual periodic payments by both spouses to each other in cases of shared parent … Surely, cheques, or even their more modern replacement of recurring e-transfers, may evidence a clearly enumerated, reciprocal and mandatory support amount paid by each spouse to the other.” [Harder v The Queen 2016 TCC 197]

It would appear, based on this decision, that Agreements may need to be reviewed and potentially re-drafted so that the parties’ intentions are not frustrated by this very narrow perspective and interpretation. The best route to go is to have actual payments exchanged – a requirement that seems cumbersome at best and foolish at worst. As Mr. Bumble said in Dickens’ classicOliver Twist, sometimes “the law is an ass.”

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