The federal spousal support guidelines state that when a payor earns over $350,000 per year the guidelines do not necessarily apply. Despite this in the past courts have awarded indefinite spousal support and have applied the guidelines to incomes over $350,000.
There seems now to be some cases especially in Ontario where the Ontario Court of Appeal was prepared to terminate spousal support after the payor paid his ex-wife $4,750 per month for 22 years. Over the years the husband’s income continued to grow to over $1,000,000 per year and his net worth was over $14,000,000.
The court terminated the wife’s support largely due to the fact that she had made no attempt to obtain employment and she just lived on the spousal support.
In other cases where payors earn over $350,000 courts have not required the payor to pay spousal support based on their actual income but on a notional income that is significantly closer to the $350,000 threshold.
Deborah A. Todd
