Section 7 expenses: daycare, braces, hockey and tuition. What counts and how to split it

Table child support is meant to cover the ordinary costs of raising a child: food, housing, clothes, the everyday. Then real life arrives with a $4,000 orthodontist estimate, a daycare bill that eats a third of your salary, and a 12 year old who turns out to be very good at hockey. Section 7 of the Federal Child Support Guidelines is where those costs live, and it is one of the most argued-over provisions in Canadian family law.

This guide explains what section 7 covers, the test an expense has to pass, how the split is calculated, and how to run it between two households without a fight every September. It applies across Canada because every province and territory uses the federal Guidelines or guidelines that mirror them, with Quebec using its own model for some cases. Check your province's rules, and get advice on anything large.

The six categories

Section 7(1) lists the expenses a court can order a parent to contribute to, on top of the table amount. Justice Canada's step-by-step guide summarises them:

1. Child care needed because of the custodial parent's job, illness, disability, or education or training for employment, where the child lives mostly with that parent.
2. The child's portion of medical and dental insurance premiums.
3. Health care costs not covered by insurance that exceed $100 a year, such as orthodontics, counselling, prescription medication, eye care, physiotherapy and speech therapy.
4. Extraordinary expenses for primary or secondary school or other educational programs that meet the child's particular needs, such as tutoring, private school or a special program.
5. Post-secondary education: tuition, residence, books and similar costs.
6. Extraordinary extracurricular activities.

Notice that two categories, school costs and activities, carry the word "extraordinary" and the other four do not. That word does a lot of work, and it is covered below.

The test: necessary and reasonable

Being on the list is not enough. Section 7(1) requires the court to consider "the necessity of the expense in relation to the child's best interests and the reasonableness of the expense in relation to the means of the spouses and those of the child and to the family's spending pattern prior to the separation."

In plain terms, three questions:

• Is it necessary for this child? Daycare so a parent can work is necessary. Braces a dentist recommends are necessary. A third set of extracurriculars might not be.
• Is it reasonable given what the parents earn? A $12,000 a year competitive program is reasonable for some families and not others.
• Is it consistent with how the family spent before separating? If your child was in private school or elite gymnastics before, courts are more willing to keep it going. If an expensive new activity appears after separation, expect scrutiny.

Nova Scotia's family law site puts the same three points as necessary, reasonable, and "consistent with the family's spending patterns prior to the separation."

What "extraordinary" means for school and activities

Section 7(1.1) defines it. School and activity costs are extraordinary if they "exceed those that the spouse requesting an amount for the extraordinary expenses can reasonably cover, taking into account that spouse's income and the amount that the spouse would receive under the applicable table". If they do not exceed that, the court can still find them extraordinary after considering the amount of the expense in relation to that parent's income, the nature and number of programs, any special needs or talents of the child, the overall cost, and anything else relevant.

The practical reading, borrowed from the Ontario firm Lerners: a local recreational soccer league is "relatively uncontroversial" and usually sits inside table support, while "elite-level hockey, competitive gymnastics, travel teams, or other high-cost activities" get closer examination, with courts asking "whether the activity is ordinary or exceptional in nature." Ordinary activities are what the table amount is for. Extraordinary ones can be shared.

How the split is calculated

Section 7(2) sets the guiding principle: "the expense is shared by the spouses in proportion to their respective incomes after deducting from the expense, the contribution, if any, from the child." Section 7(3) adds that the court "must take into account any subsidies, benefits or income tax deductions or credits relating to the expense, and any eligibility to claim a subsidy, benefit or deduction or credit relating to the expense."

So the order of operations is:

1. Start with the gross cost.
2. Subtract any subsidy, grant, insurance reimbursement, benefit, or tax deduction or credit the paying parent gets or could claim. The child care expense deduction and the medical expense tax credit are the common ones. Nova Scotia's site gives the example of a $10,000 daycare cost with a $1,000 tax benefit, leaving a $9,000 net cost to share.
3. Subtract any contribution from the child, which matters most for adult students with summer jobs, scholarships or loans.
4. Split what is left in proportion to each parent's Guidelines income.

A worked example

Justice Canada's own example involves Robert and Dan in British Columbia, whose 15 year old daughter Li lives mainly with Dan. Robert earns $80,000 and Dan earns $75,000, a combined $155,000. Li's figure skating lessons and ice time come to about $12,000 a year after tax credits. Both agree it is a reasonable extraordinary expense. Robert's share is $80,000 divided by $155,000, which is 51.6 percent, times $12,000, or $6,193.55 a year, about $516 a month, on top of his $765 table amount.

The FairWell shared child expenses calculator does this arithmetic for any two incomes and any list of expenses, and shows each parent's percentage so you can reuse it all year.

A note on shared parenting: Justice Canada's step 7 applies when one parent has the majority of parenting time or time is split between children. Where time is shared roughly equally, parents use their discretion in setting out how special expenses are handled, and most still use proportional sharing because it is the fairest default. See shared custody and the 40 percent rule.

Agree before you spend

Most section 7 fights are not about the law. They are about one parent signing a child up for something, paying it, and sending the other parent a bill. Justice Canada's advice is: "It is best if you agree on which special or extraordinary expenses are reasonable and necessary." Lerners adds that "ideally, parents should discuss significant section 7 expenses before the expense is incurred", and that while prior agreement is not strictly required, disputes "often arise when one parent incurs a large cost without consulting the other."

A reasonable rule for two homes: anything above an agreed threshold, say $250 or $500, gets a message to the other parent before it is booked, with the cost, the dates, and the reason. The other parent answers within a set number of days. Silence is not consent, but unreasonable refusal is also not a veto, and a court can still order a contribution to something that was necessary and reasonable.

Receipts, ledgers and timing

Nova Scotia's site is blunt: when you go to court "you will have to provide proof of the expense, like receipts", and you usually cannot claim an expense you have not yet paid. Keep a shared record. A simple spreadsheet, or the expense module in a co-parenting app, with columns for date, child, category, gross cost, subsidy or credit, net cost, each parent's share and date paid. Attach the receipt or statement. Settle up monthly or quarterly, not annually, because a year-end bill of several thousand dollars is where goodwill dies. Our guide to co-parenting apps covers the tools.

Justice Canada also recommends recording for each expense its purpose, total cost, each parent's contribution, due dates and other details, because enforcement programs generally need "a specific dollar amount for each expense" before they can collect it. A clause that says "the parties shall share section 7 expenses proportionally" is correct but not enforceable on its own; the program needs a number.

Writing the section 7 clause

A workable clause in a separation agreement usually covers:

• Which categories apply now, listed by name, with current amounts and each parent's percentage.
• The percentage split and how it is recalculated, typically every year on exchange of tax returns.
• The consultation rule: what has to be discussed first, the threshold, the response time, and that consent is not to be unreasonably withheld.
• Net cost: that subsidies, credits and insurance come off first, and who claims which credit.
• Payment mechanics: who pays the provider, how and when the other parent reimburses, and what proof is exchanged.
• Adult children: how post-secondary costs are treated, the child's expected contribution, and when support for that child ends. See when child support ends.
• Disputes: mediation first, then the court.

The FairWell separation agreement builder includes a section 7 schedule with these elements, and clause ideas has sample wording. Have a lawyer in your province review the final version.

Common disputes, and the honest answers

• "Hockey is a normal activity." House league usually is. Rep or AAA with travel and $8,000 in fees usually is not. The question is cost relative to income and what the family did before.
• "I never agreed to private school." If the child was already enrolled before separation, a court is likely to treat it as consistent with the family's pattern. A new enrolment one parent opposes is a harder case.
• "Daycare should come out of table support." No. Work-related child care is a listed section 7 expense precisely because it is not in the table.
• "The $100 health rule." The $100 threshold is per year, not per item, and applies to the uninsured portion. Many small prescriptions can add up to a shareable expense.
• "My ex earns more now." Then the percentages change. Exchange income information annually; it is a standard term and the Guidelines expect it.

A note for US readers: add-on expenses

Most US states have a similar concept, usually called add-ons, additional support or mandatory add-ons, layered on top of the guideline amount. The categories are narrower than Canada's and vary by state, but work-related child care and uninsured health care costs are almost universal. California's court form FL-192 on health care costs, for example, requires a parent who pays an uninsured cost to send the other parent an itemised statement within a reasonable time and no more than 90 days after receiving it, and gives the other parent 30 days to pay their share if the order sets no other time. It also presumes that child care costs for employment or job training are reasonable. Check your state's guidelines and FairWell's guide to child support in the US.

Whatever the jurisdiction, the mechanics that keep the peace are the same: agree first, net out credits, split by income, keep receipts, settle often, and write it all down.

Sources

1. Federal Child Support Guidelines, SOR/97-175, section 7 (Justice Laws Website, Government of Canada)
2. The Federal Child Support Guidelines: Step-by-Step, Step 7: Determine if there are special or extraordinary expenses (Department of Justice Canada)
3. Special Expenses (Section 7s) (Nova Scotia Family Law, Government of Nova Scotia and Nova Scotia Legal Aid)
4. Section 7 Expenses in Ontario: What Parents Need to Know (Lerners LLP)
5. Form FL-192, Notice of Rights and Responsibilities: Health-Care Costs and Reimbursement Procedures (Judicial Council of California)

This guide is general information for parents, not medical, psychological or legal advice. It draws on published research and guidance from recognised health and family justice bodies, listed under Sources. Every child and family is different. If you are worried about your child or yourself, talk to your family doctor or a qualified professional. FairWell can help you find one through the professional directory. How we write and check our guides.