How is child support calculated in British Columbia?
Child support in BC is set by the Federal Child Support Guidelines. The basic amount comes from a table that depends on the paying parent's gross annual income and the number of children. Special expenses such as child care and health costs are added on top and shared in proportion to the parents' incomes.
The table amount
The Guidelines fix a monthly amount by looking up the paying parent's income in the table for the province where that parent lives, for the number of children being supported. Income means the total income on the parent's T1 tax return, adjusted as Schedule III of the Guidelines directs; the court can depart from that figure where a parent's income is understated, fluctuates or is sheltered in a company.
The same rules apply whether or not the parents were married. The Divorce Act requires a court to follow the Guidelines, and BC's Family Law Act requires child support to be determined in accordance with the child support guidelines, which adopt the federal tables.
Special and extraordinary expenses
On top of the table amount, a court can order a share of child care needed for a parent's work or schooling, the child's portion of medical and dental premiums, health costs over $100 a year that insurance does not cover, post-secondary education, and extraordinary school or extracurricular costs. Each is shared in proportion to the parents' incomes, after subsidies, tax credits and any contribution from the child are taken off.
Shared parenting
When each parent has the child at least 40% of the time over the year, the table amount is no longer automatic. The court looks at what each parent would pay under the tables, the extra cost of running two homes for the child, and each household's means and needs. A straight set-off of the two table amounts is the usual starting point, but not a rule.
Undue hardship, stepparents and adult children
A parent can ask for a different amount on the ground of undue hardship, for example unusually high debts taken on for the family or the cost of exercising parenting time, but the claim fails if that parent's household would still have the higher standard of living. A stepparent who supported a child for at least a year can owe support too, secondary to the parents. For a child at or over 19, the court can apply the table or set an amount that fits the child's circumstances, such as a student living away from home.
Agreements
Parents can agree on child support, but only an agreement made after separation, or when about to separate, is binding, and a court can replace any part of it that departs from what the Guidelines would produce. Child support is the child's right, which is why the parents cannot bargain it away.
The law
Each link opens the section itself on BC Laws or Justice Laws. Checked on November 9, 2026.
- Federal Child Support Guidelines, SOR/97-175, s 3 — the presumptive table amount, and the table for the province where the payor lives
- Federal Child Support Guidelines, s 7 — special or extraordinary expenses, shared in proportion to income
- Federal Child Support Guidelines, s 9 — shared parenting time of not less than 40%
- Federal Child Support Guidelines, s 10 — undue hardship and the household standard-of-living test
- Federal Child Support Guidelines, s 16 — annual income from the T1 total income, adjusted by Schedule III
- Divorce Act, RSC 1985, c 3 (2nd Supp), s 15.1 — child support orders must follow the applicable guidelines
- Family Law Act, SBC 2011, c 25, s 147 — every parent's and guardian's duty to support a child; stepparents
- Family Law Act, s 148 — when a child support agreement binds, and when a court can replace it
- Family Law Act, s 150 — the amount is determined in accordance with the child support guidelines
People also ask
- What income is child support based on?
- The paying parent's total income on their T1 tax return, adjusted under Schedule III of the Guidelines. Where that figure does not fairly reflect what a parent earns, for instance a self-employed parent or one with fluctuating income, the court can use a different figure.
- Can parents agree to no child support?
- Not reliably. An agreement about child support binds only if it was made after or at the point of separation, and a court can replace any part of it that departs from the Guidelines. The amount belongs to the child.
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General information about the law in British Columbia, not legal advice. Laws change and every situation differs; speak to a lawyer before acting on anything here.