Two different formulas, one requirement underneath both: accurate financial disclosure. Child support and spousal support run on different legal frameworks, and property division adds a third layer entirely — but none of the three works without honest, complete numbers from both sides.
How Child Support Is Calculated
Child support in BC runs on the Federal Child Support Guidelines (SOR/97-175, a regulation made under the Divorce Act). Section 3 sets the presumptive rule: the amount owed is the applicable table amount for the paying parent’s income and number of children, plus any amount determined under section 7. From there, real files often need adjustment:
Self-employment income is frequently adjusted upward under sections 16 to 20 of the Guidelines, which govern how a spouse’s income is determined — adding back personal expenses claimed as business deductions.
Shared parenting, where each parent has the child at least 40% of the time, is governed by section 9 of the Guidelines, which typically directs a set-off calculation rather than a straight table amount.
Special or extraordinary expenses — child care, medical and dental premiums, health costs beyond insurance, and similar costs — are addressed separately under section 7, shared between parents in proportion to income after any subsidies or tax benefits are accounted for.
Imputed income can be attributed to a parent under section 19, which lists nine specific circumstances where a court may impute income, including where a parent is intentionally unemployed or underemployed, so support isn’t reduced by a parent’s own choice to earn less.
How Spousal Support Is Determined
Spousal support has no fixed formula — only a range, set under the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines, a non-binding tool developed by the federal Department of Justice, not enacted legislation.
Entitlement itself, though, is governed by actual statute. For married spouses under the Divorce Act, section 15.2(6) sets out the objectives a court must weigh: recognizing economic advantages or disadvantages arising from the relationship or its breakdown, apportioning the financial consequences of child care, relieving economic hardship from the breakdown, and promoting each spouse’s economic self-sufficiency within a reasonable time. Section 15.2(4) then directs the court to consider the length of cohabitation, the functions each spouse performed during the relationship, and any existing support arrangement.
For unmarried and married spouses alike, BC’s Family Law Act sets out nearly identical criteria: section 160 establishes the duty to pay support once entitlement is found, and section 161 sets out the same four objectives as the federal test. Once entitlement is established under either statute, only then do the Advisory Guidelines’ ranges come into play — entitlement isn’t automatic simply because one spouse earns more than the other.
Because the actual dollar figure comes from a range rather than a fixed number, the final amount is a matter of negotiation grounded in your specific circumstances.
How Property Is Divided
BC’s Family Law Act starts from a foundational rule at section 81: on separation, each spouse holds an undivided one-half interest in family property, and is equally responsible for family debt, as a matter of law — not something a court has to specially order. However, family property is a broad category covering nearly everything either spouse owns at separation, and valuation adds real complexity.
Section 84 defines family property broadly: essentially everything either spouse owns or has a beneficial interest in as of the separation date, regardless of whose name it’s under, plus certain property acquired after separation.
Section 85 carves out excluded property — assets owned before the relationship began, inheritances, gifts from third parties, and certain damage awards or insurance proceeds. Critically, any increase in the value of excluded property during the relationship remains family property and is divisible, and the spouse claiming an exclusion carries the burden of proving it, including tracing the asset if it’s changed form or been commingled with family property.
Section 86 addresses family debt on the same equal-division default, and section 87 sets the valuation date — generally the date of the trial or agreement, not the date of separation, so property values can shift materially between separation and resolution.
Pensions are divided based on the portion of pensionable service that occurred during the relationship, not the full pension value. Businesses often require a professional valuation, even when owned by only one spouse.
Section 95 allows a court to order an unequal division of family property or debt where an even split would be significantly unfair, considering factors that include the length of the relationship, one spouse’s reckless conduct reducing the value of family property, and whether family debt was incurred outside the normal course of the relationship. Section 96 governs when even excluded property can be divided, in narrower circumstances.
Why Disclosure Comes Before Everything Else
A support or property figure built on incomplete numbers doesn’t just risk being wrong — it risks being reopened later, once the missing information surfaces, particularly given that a spouse’s burden to prove an exclusion under section 85 depends entirely on the quality of financial records kept and disclosed.
How Katrina Berube Law Handles Your File
Disclosure-first process — we require full financial disclosure before any figure is negotiated, not after a dispute forces the issue.
Formula and exception both covered — Guidelines sections 7, 9(Special expenses, Shared parenting time) and 19 (Income imputation)are addressed as standard practice, not treated as complications.
Property valued properly — pensions, businesses, and excluded property under sections 84, 85, and 87 are identified and valued correctly, not estimated or assumed.
Figures built to hold up — every number we negotiate is one you can defend later, whether in a signed agreement or before a court.
Serving Vancouver and clients across all of BC, Katrina Berube Law calculates support and divides property with the accuracy that keeps an agreement from unraveling later.