Child support is the right of the child and the obligation of the parent.So, the quick answer to whether one spouse has to pay the other spouse’s child support is“no”. But, like most things in the law, things can be more complicated than that.
Child support is always payable by a biological or adoptive parent who has a child for 50% of the time or less. (Where there is “shared parenting”, the amount of child support can vary from the child support tables, butusually, both parents pay table child support to each other). For more about how child support workswatch the videobelow.
In Ontario, getting married does not mean one spouse “owns” the other spouse’s assets nor does it mean one spouse is responsible for the other spouse’s debts – including any debts for child support.Under Ontario Law, married spouses are still legallyindependent from each other. Part 1 of Ontario’s Family Law Actcovers property division on separation. For a full explanation of how that works,watch the videobelow, andlisten to this podcast. But to summarize, separated married spouses share in the increase in each other’s net worths, but not in the actual assets themselves. Common-law couples have even fewer property rights.So, if your fiancé is in debt to his ex for child support, that is not your debt.
However, unfortunately, that may not be where it ends. There are still ways that one spouse could end up “on the hook” for the other spouse’s child support debt.
First, with regard to property division, when married spouses separate, they share in the increase in each other’s net worth. When a married spouse builds up a child support debt, that debt decreases his or her net worth. So, on separation, that net worth is lessened by the amount of the child support debt. Since, on separation, each spouse essentially gets half of the other spouse’s increase in net worth, any debt owed by one spouse reduces how much the other spouse will get by half of the value of that debt.
Put more directly, the spouse without the child support debt ends up indirectly paying half of that child support debt because of the decrease in what the other spouse shares through Ontario’s Property Equalization process.
But, things can even work out worse than that if the spouse who owes the child support is also the spouse whose net worth has gone up less (or not at all). The spouse with the greater increase in net worth during the marriage owes the other spouse an “equalization payment” on separation. If the spouse who owes child support has a lower increase in his or her net worth (either because of the child support debt or otherwise), the other spouse will have to a larger equalization payment. So, when one spouse has his or her net worth decreased by child support debt, how much the other spouse owes for an equalization payment would be increased by half the amount of that debt.In that case, the other, “innocent”, spouse is indirectly, paying half of that child support debt.
These types of debt problems, which can have very unfair results, can befixed with a marriage contract. Watch the video below on how to use a marriage contract to avoid sharing your spouse’s debts. A spouse can have a contract that says one spouse’s child support debts will not affect Property Equalization if the spouses separate. That means the marriage contract can legally prevent one spouse from ever being responsible for the other spouse’s child support.
There is another way one spouse’s child support for the children of a previous relationship can become a problem for his or her current spouse.
As noted above, child support is the obligation ofparents. However, the term“parent”can mean more than just biological or adoptive parents. While biological and adoptive parents always pay full table child support, other people who have acted as a parent to a child can be on the hook for child support too. That means that a step-parent can end up owing child support to his or her spouse’s ex. Listen to this podcast that explains more.This does not mean the step-parent shares in his or her spouse’s child support obligation. Instead, it means that step-parents canacquiretheir own child support obligations for their spouses’kids from prior relationships.As explored inthis video from a high-profile new story, acting as a parent to someone else’s kids can create a child support obligation – especially where a person does it with the best motivations.
A spouse is not directly responsible for the child support owed to the other spouse’s ex.However, that“innocent”spousecould end up sharing in that debt on separation after amarriage when his or her current spouseowes back child supportto a former spouse.
A spouse who acts like a parent to a partner’s children from aprevious relationship can also end up owing child support to that partner’s ex!
