Child Support Calculator Canada 2026
The table amount of child support under the Federal Child Support Guidelines — all 13 provinces and territories, with shared parenting set-off and section 7 expenses.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure this tool produces is read from Schedule I of the Federal Child Support Guidelines (SOR/97-175), the regulation that actually sets child support in Canada. We extracted all 10,452 income brackets — 13 jurisdictions × 6 family sizes × 134 income steps — directly from the regulation's own PDF, not from a summary or another calculator.
Schedule I includes a worked example so users can check any implementation: British Columbia, two children, an income of $51,250 gives a basic amount of $807 plus 1.54% of the $250 above the $51,000 bracket floor, for $810.85 a month. This calculator returns exactly that. We also verified that every bracket's basic amount equals the previous bracket's amount plus its percentage applied to $1,000, and that adding a child never reduces the payment — across all 10,452 brackets, with no exceptions.
The two limits of the table
The tables do not cover every income, and the Guidelines say so explicitly in Note 2 to Schedule I. Both limits matter, and both are routinely got wrong.
Below $12,000 a year, no table amount is payable. That is a stated threshold, not a rounding artefact. The published tables themselves start at $16,000, where the basic amount is $0 and rises as a percentage of income above that floor. Between $12,000 and $16,000 the tables produce nothing, which is why this calculator reports no table amount rather than inventing one.
Above $150,000 the tables simply stop. Section 4 takes over: the table amount applies to the first $150,000, and for the balance the court orders "the amount that it considers appropriate, having regard to the condition, means, needs and other circumstances of the children and the financial ability of each spouse to contribute to the support of the children." There is no formula. A calculator that extends the final bracket to a $400,000 income is producing a number the Guidelines never authorised — so this one shows the table amount on the first $150,000 and stops there, flagging the balance as discretionary.
Shared parenting is a starting point, not an answer
Section 9 applies where "each spouse exercises not less than 40% of parenting time with a child over the course of a year." The 40% figure is a gateway, not a formula — crossing it does not automatically halve anything.
What section 9 actually requires is that the court consider three things: the table amounts for each parent, the increased costs of shared arrangements, and the condition, means, needs and other circumstances of each spouse and child. The common starting point is the simple set-off this calculator shows — work out both table amounts and subtract the smaller from the larger — but courts depart from it regularly, particularly where the two households have very different resources.
Counting parenting time is itself contested. The 40% threshold is usually measured in hours over a year rather than overnights, and a schedule that looks equal on a calendar can fall short once school hours are attributed. This is one of the most litigated points in Canadian family law, and it is not something a calculator settles.
Section 7: what counts as a special expense
The table amount is meant to cover ordinary day-to-day costs. Section 7 sits on top of it for six specific categories, and the section requires the expense to be necessary in the child's best interests and reasonable given both parents' means:
- child care needed because a parent is working, ill, disabled, or in training
- the portion of medical and dental insurance premiums attributable to the child
- health-related expenses above $100 a year — orthodontics, therapy, prescriptions, glasses
- extraordinary primary or secondary school expenses, or programmes meeting particular needs
- post-secondary education expenses
- extraordinary extracurricular activities
These are shared in proportion to income, not split down the middle — a parent earning $80,000 against $40,000 carries roughly two thirds. The amount shared is the expense net of any subsidy or tax credit, so a $10,000 daycare bill that attracts a $2,000 credit is shared as $8,000. The word doing the most work is "extraordinary": competitive hockey is not automatically a section 7 expense simply because it is expensive.
Child Support in Canada — Frequently Asked Questions
The paying parent's gross annual income and the number of children are looked up in the Federal Child Support Table for their province. Each bracket gives a basic monthly amount plus a percentage of the income above the bracket floor. Section 7 expenses are added separately and shared in proportion to both incomes.
Yes — $12,000 a year, set by Note 2 to Schedule I. Below that no table amount is payable. The tables themselves begin at $16,000.
Section 4 applies. The table amount covers the first $150,000; for the balance the court orders what it considers appropriate given the children's needs and each parent's ability to pay. There is no formula, so any tool that extrapolates the last bracket is inventing a figure.
Section 9 applies once each parent has the children at least 40% of the time. The usual starting point is a set-off of the two table amounts, but the section also requires the court to weigh the increased costs of two households and each family's circumstances.
The table for the province where the paying parent lives. If that parent lives outside Canada, the table for the province where the recipient lives applies.
No. The arithmetic here is reliable; determining income is not arithmetic. Self-employment, dividends, undue hardship under section 10, and children at or over the age of majority under section 3(2) all change the answer. Speak to a family law lawyer.