What are “special” or “extraordinary” expenses?
There is one part of child support that is not impacted on the residency schedule of the children and that is special and extraordinary expenses. Sometimes these are referred to as “section 7 expenses” because the provisions which afford these rights are found in Section 7 of the Child Support Guidelines. Regardless of their name, they include the following expenses:
- expenses that exceed those that the parent or spouse requesting an amount for the extraordinary expenses can reasonably cover, taking into account that parent’s or spouse’s income and the amount that the parent or spouse would receive under the applicable table or, where the Court has determined that the table amount is inappropriate, the amount that the Court has otherwise determined is appropriate, or
- expenses that are considered extraordinary taking into account,
- the amount of the expense in relation to the income of the parent or spouse requesting the amount, including the amount that the parent or spouse would receive under the applicable table or, where the Court has determined that the table amount is inappropriate, the amount that the Court has otherwise determined is appropriate,
- the nature and number of the educational programs and extracurricular activities,
- any special needs and talents of the child,
- the overall cost of the programs and activities, and
- any other similar factors that the court considers relevant.
The parties will pay these expenses in proportion to their income. In order to calculate the proportion of the parties’ income, you simply add together each parties’ income for the year as the total “parental income” and then divide each person’s share from there.
What Constitutes a special or extraordinary expense.
Special and extraordinary expenses can sometimes be debated between the parties. Sometimes parents will disagree over whether an expense should be paid for or whether it is necessary. It is important to remember that there is a fixed amount of income each party is making, and some expenses may not be reasonable under the circumstances. Conversely, some expenses may be necessary or important to the development of the children and should be incurred by each party. If the children are involved in certain sporting activities pre-separation, they will likely form part of the special and extraordinary expenses post-separation.
However, if parents are wishing to register their children in more extracurricular activities outside of their budget, they will need to have an honest discussion as co-parents in determining whether or not an expense can be covered.