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Income used in an assessment
The child support income amount is a parent's taxable income as assessed by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) plus any supplementary amounts. The child support income amount is used to calculate the amount of child support payable.
To calculate a child support assessment CSA will use the last relevant year of income as assessed by ATO. The last relevant year of income for a child support period is the last financial year that ended before the start of the child support period.
What if my taxable income is lower now?
What happens if I don't provide information on their income to CSA?
What if the ATO amends my taxable income after CSA makes a child support assessment?
Once CSA has made a child support assessment it will disregard any subsequent changes to a person's taxable income except where that person's assessment has been amended because of tax avoidance.
Top of pageWhat if my taxable income is lower now?
Your taxable income may have decreased since you last lodged your tax return and may be lower than the income CSA is using for your assessment. This might be because you became unemployed, worked less hours or changed jobs.
If your annual income has reduced by 15 per cent or more than the income used in your child support assessment, you may elect to use an estimate of your current income.
What if I have a taxable income of $0?
Where a parent has a nil taxable income determined under the tax legislation this is used for child support purposes unless they have a supplementary amount for that year of income.
What if there is no taxable income information available?
If taxable income information is not available, CSA can decide on an appropriate income amount to use in a child support assessment. The income used is called a default income.
Where a parent's taxable income and / or supplementary income is not known and CSA or ATO has:
- been provided with information, CSA can act on the basis of that information to decide the person's taxable and/or supplementary income.
- asked the parent to provide a return, information or documents for the purpose of determining income, and that person has not given that information, CSA can act on the basis that the person's taxable and / or supplementary income is an amount that CSA considers appropriate.
Can I provide information on my income if I haven't lodged a tax return?
If you have not lodged an income tax return for the relevant year but have provided CSA or the ATO with details of your taxable income and/or supplementary amount (either orally or in writing) CSA will generally act on the basis of that information.
CSA will not use information provided by a person to make an assessment if the information is proven to be unreliable.
What happens if I don't provide information on my income to CSA?
If CSA determines that you have an eligible case, and you have not provided reliable information about your income, CSA will decide on an appropriate income amount to be used in the assessment.
More information
More detailed information about incomes used in an assessment is available in Chapter 2.4: Formula assessment of The Guide.
Contact CSA for more information.
