Child Support Amendment Act 2013

Find out about the current child support requirements here

The Child Support Amendment Act 2013 introduces significant reforms to the child support scheme that will come into effect over the next two years. The intention is to make the child support scheme fairer, taking more factors into account and being more flexible. The changes will take into account a wider range of individual circumstances and reflect changes in family structure and involvement in child upbringing since the child support scheme was first introduced.

The reforms introduce:

• a comprehensive new formula that takes into account the estimated cost of raising children, a lower level of minimum shared care, and the income of both parents
• improvements to the administration of the scheme such as the compulsory deduction of child support from the employment income of liable parents, and
• a two-stage late payment penalty, reduction of the monthly incremental late payment penalties after a year, and relaxation of the circumstances under which debt can be written off.

The Child Support Amendment Act 2013 also replaces some sections of the Child Support Act 1991 to reflect changes in language and definitions.

There are some transitional provisions to allow the Commissioner to collect and update information required for the new child support formula and to allow assessments to be prepared in time for the child support year commencing 1 April 2014. Savings provisions also apply. The transitional and savings provisions came into effect from date of Royal assent.

Information relating to the formula assessment will be published on Inland Revenue's website and updated regularly. The website will also contain calculators to help people determine the level of shared care and child support liabilities.