The Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines
The Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines provides a formula for determining the amount and the duration of spousal support payable where an entitlement to support has been agreed upon or is court ordered. Both spouses’ incomes are used unlike child support which is based solely on the payor’s income. There are two formulas used in the calculation of spousal support; where there are no children of the marriage and where there are children
Without Children Guidelines: The range of the amount payable is 1.5 % to 2% of the difference between the spouse’s gross incomes for each year of cohabitation up to a maximum of 50%. The duration ranges from .5 to 1 year for each year of marriage and indefinite (duration not specified) if the marriage is 20 years or longer, or if the marriage is longer than 5 years, when the years of marriage and the age of the recipient added together total 65 or more
With Children Guidelines: The amount of support payable will be calculated using net income, taking into consideration the payment of child support, taxes and government benefits. The amount of support payable is in the range between 40% and 46% of the combined disposable income. The duration of spousal support uses two tests to determine the longer time formula. The tests used are length of marriage and the age of children. The With Children Guidelines set duration as not specified as this will subject the support to reviews to determine the continuation of the spousal support
Shared and Split Custody situations are a complicated formula which uses backing out child support and applying the Without Child Guidelines
In general, the following factors are taken into consideration, which will improve the likelihood of spousal support being granted
Length of Marriage: The longer the marriage, including the time the parties lived together before marriage. As well, the longer the marriage is, the stronger the presumption will be that the parties should have an equal or almost equal standard of living.
Difference in Incomes: The greater the difference in income between the parties.
Economic Disadvantage: The more one spouse has lost as result of the marriage, such as job skills, job opportunities or employability
Earning Capacity: If one party's earning capacity is reduced because of family obligations like child care or a serious illness, for example
The results produced by the formula can be used in negotiations and are widely used by the courts, mediator and lawyers. The Advisory Guidelines will not become law and are used as a guideline only unlike the Child Support Guidelines.
Sharon Alderson CFP, FDS sharon.alderson@gmail.com
