By Tara Grant - 13 Aug 2012
The New Zealand Law Society has criticized the Child Support
Amendment Bill claiming it misses its opportunity to address gaps
in the current child support legislation.
The Law Society urged parliament to amend the Bill to make
voluntary and independent child support agreements binding and
enforceable. Currently voluntary agreements can be overturned
by an application by either parent to have child support assessed
in terms of Inland Revenue's formula assessment. This ability
to overturn voluntary agreements remains in the Amendment Bill.
Many people make voluntary arrangements in respect of child
support as part of an overall separation agreement and advice is
always needed on the effect of that child support agreement and the
ability for it to be overturned. We sentiment the comments
made on behalf of the Law Society, that parliament could have used
this Bill as an opportunity to allow these voluntary agreements to
be binding and enforceable. Surely this would have assisted
parliament meet its objective of delivering a simple, efficient,
reliable and equitable scheme?
In addition the Law Society has criticised the Inland Revenue's
new proposed child support formula as being overly complicated and
likely to make it impossible for parents to calculate liability and
entitlement.
We will have to wait and see whether parliament will take on
board the Law Society's comments and amend the Bill. In the
meantime if you wish to check your child support liability you can
follow the link below to IRD's website and use their calculator to
calculate your liability or entitlement under the current
legislation.
For information please contact:
Tara
Hurley
Links:
IRD child support - calculators and
worksheets