Income tax | Tax credits
Taxpayer mother and father were separated and shared custody of their children. Minister made redeterminations in respect of Canada Child Benefit (CCB) for taxpayer for three taxation years on basis that she was “shared-custody parent” and taxpayer only received portion of quantum of CCB she would have been entitled to if she was not shared custody parent. Taxpayer appealed. Appeal allowed. It was found that taxpayer was not shared-custody parent, due to significantly greater time that she, relative to father, committed to provision of custodial care of their children. Substantial factors that affected apparently even-handed nature of arrangement was that at all material times, father was employed full-time and had part-time second job and taxpayer was not employed, and that even in summer months, father would still drop children off at taxpayer’s house during each of his two alternating weeks of custody. This translated to taxpayer having 34 per cent more actual custody of children than father.
Lavallee v. The Queen (2018), 2018 CarswellNat 6204, 2018 CarswellNat 7092, 2018 TCC 213, 2018 CCI 213, B. Russell J. (T.C.C. [Informal Procedure]).
Case Law is a weekly summary of notable civil and criminal court decisions by the Supreme Court of Canada, the Federal Court of Canada and all Ontario courts. These cases may be found online in WestlawNext Canada. To subscribe, please visit store.thomsonreuters.ca
