In B.C. separation agreements and court orders which require a person to pay child support and/or spousal support can be enforced by the provincial Family Maintenance Enforcement Program (FMEP).
Pursuant to the Federal Child Support Guidelines a payor must disclose his or her income information annually to his or her spouse as child maintenance increases or decreases based on the payor’s annual income.
In the past payors have been able to avoid paying an increased amount of child maintenance simply by refusing to file tax returns. In order to address this the federal government has introduced Bill C-78 which creates a mechanism whereby the Minister of National Revenue can demand that a payor file an income tax return. The information in that tax return can then be released to a court for the purposes of establishing, varying and/or enforcing a support order.
Deborah A. Todd
