Spousal support in BC is calculated under the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines (SSAG). The Guidelines produce a low, mid, and high monthly amount plus a duration range, and which of the two SSAG formulas applies — with-child or without-child — drives nearly every number. A BC spousal support calculator runs both formulas against your inputs in roughly 30 seconds, which is how most of this post is structured: how to use the calculator, what the numbers mean, and where the math stops being mechanical.
The short answer
Spousal support in British Columbia is set under the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines. The Guidelines are advisory, not law, but BC courts treat them as the starting point in nearly every case.
There are two formulas. The without-child formula runs off gross incomes and the length of the relationship. The with-child formula is more involved — it runs off each spouse's net income after taxes and child support. Both produce a range (low / mid / high) and a duration range. A BC spousal support calculator just automates the math.
A bare-bones version only needs a handful of fields. Our calculator is more than that — it accepts the full range of income types the Federal Child Support Guidelines and the SSAG actually contemplate, including self-employment, pensions, dividends, capital gains, RRSP withdrawals, and non-taxable income, plus the Schedule III adjustments that decide what counts as "Guidelines income" in the first place. Most people only need to fill in the obvious fields. The rest are there when the income picture isn't simple.
Before you reach for a calculator: is there entitlement?
A calculator will give you a number whether you're entitled to spousal support or not. The law won't. Before any formula runs, the threshold question is whether one spouse has a legal claim against the other at all.
There must be a finding — by a judge or by agreement — that entitlement exists before the SSAG applies. A mere income gap is not enough on its own.
The SSAG recognises two principal bases for entitlement: compensatory (economic disadvantage flowing from the relationship or its breakdown — for example, one spouse pausing a career to raise children) and non-compensatory (need or hardship after separation, including a significant drop from the marital standard of living). A binding agreement between the spouses is a third, less common, route.
This matters for the calculator output because the SSAG number is only the quantum question. Whether anyone owes anything in the first place is a separate analysis the calculator can't do.
Married, common-law, or in between
For divorcing couples, spousal support is governed by section 15.2 of the Divorce Act. For everyone else — common-law spouses and separating-but-not-divorcing married couples — section 161 of the BC Family Law Act sets out the objectives, and section 162 the factors.
Under section 3 of the Family Law Act, an unmarried person counts as a "spouse" if they have lived with another person in a marriage-like relationship for at least two continuous years — or if they have a child with the other person and have lived together for any period. Same legal entitlement to spousal support, same SSAG math.
The two SSAG formulas
The most useful thing a BC spousal support calculator does is pick the right formula for you and run both ends of the range. Here's what each one is actually computing.
Without children: the gross-income formula
If there are no dependent children, the calculator uses the without-child formula. The math is straightforward enough to do on paper.
The monthly amount is 1.5% to 2% of the gross income gap, multiplied by the number of years of cohabitation, capped at 50% of the income gap. A relationship of 25 years or more sits at the cap — 37.5% to 50% of the gap. There is a separate ceiling on top of all of this: the formula cannot produce an amount that would push the spouses past net-income equalization, which can occasionally pull the high end down in very high-gap cases.
A worked example: spouse A earns $120,000 and spouse B earns $40,000. The gap is $80,000. After 10 years together, the range is 15% to 20% of $80,000 — between $12,000 and $16,000 per year, or roughly $1,000 to $1,333 per month. The mid-range sits around $1,167.
Duration under this formula is 0.5 to 1 year of support for every year of cohabitation. If the relationship lasted 20 years or longer, duration becomes indefinite — meaning open-ended and subject to review.
There is also the rule of 65: if the recipient's age at separation plus the years of cohabitation total 65 or more, and the relationship lasted at least 5 years, duration is indefinite too. A 55-year-old who was married for 15 years (55 + 15 = 70) lands in indefinite duration. A 45-year-old at 15 years (60) doesn't.
With children: the net-income formula
If there are dependent children, the calculator switches to the with-child formula, and the math is genuinely more complicated.
The with-child formula uses each spouse's net incomes, not gross. That's because child support is not tax-deductible to the payor or taxable to the recipient, but spousal support is — so the only honest way to compare each household's spending power is to net everything out.
The calculator does this by:
- Running the federal child support tables to figure out the table amount
- Calculating both spouses' federal and BC income taxes for 2026
- Subtracting child support from the payor and adding it back to the recipient (without tax effects, because child support is tax-neutral)
- Adjusting for tax credits, benefits, and deductions
- Finally, solving for the spousal support amount that leaves the recipient with 40% to 46% of the parties' combined individual net disposable income
The 40–46% target is the actual SSAG rule. It's not a number anyone is intended to hand-calculate. This is where the calculator earns its keep.
Duration under the with-child formula uses a "longer of" test at both ends of the range. The lower end is the longer of half the length of the relationship, or the date the youngest child starts full-time school. The upper end is the longer of the full length of the relationship, or the date the youngest child finishes high school. For a couple with a toddler and a 5-year marriage, both ends are usually set by the children-finishing-school test. For a couple with a teenager and a 25-year marriage, both ends are usually set by the length-of-relationship test. The calculator returns both endpoints of the duration range, not one number.
What you need to use the BC spousal support calculator
If you want to run the actual numbers, the calculator at simplyseparation.ca will do it in about 30 seconds for a simple case, longer if your income picture has a few moving parts.
The minimum
For a basic case, you only need the obvious inputs:
- Each spouse's gross employment income (line 15000 of the prior year's tax return is the cleanest place to look)
- The length of cohabitation, including pre-marriage time
- Each spouse's age at separation
- Whether you have dependent children, their birthdates, and which parent each child primarily lives with
- Section 7 special or extraordinary expenses, if any
- Province of residence (the tax engine handles every province and territory, not just BC)
That alone produces an SSAG range for most files.
When the income picture isn't just T4 employment
The calculator opens up further when income is more complex. It accepts, for each spouse:
- Self-employment income (T1 lines 13500/13700, with the CPP both-shares treatment baked in)
- Pension income and the s. 60.03 pension-splitting add-back and deduction (so the income lands with the original earner for Guidelines purposes, per Schedule III §3.1)
- Eligible and non-eligible dividends entered as actuals — the 38% and 15% gross-ups apply automatically
- Non-taxable income (WCB, on-reserve employment, long-term disability) with the 25% Guidelines gross-up
- Capital gains entered as the actual gain (50% inclusion handled internally)
- RRSP / RRIF withdrawals
- CCPC stock-option benefit deferred under ITA s. 7(1.1) but added back to Guidelines income per Schedule III §11
- Partnership / sole-proprietorship non-arm's-length add-backs under Schedule III §10
- Other taxable income for things like interest, rental, or regular EI
- Prior spousal and child support received, with the child support properly excluded from Guidelines income
- An imputed-income override if either party's actual reported income doesn't reflect earning capacity
Deductions and adjustments
It also handles the deduction side that's easy to miss:
- Union and professional dues (T1 line 21200)
- Other employment expenses under ITA s. 8 — motor vehicle, home office, tradesperson tools, clergy residence (T1 line 22900)
- Carrying charges and investment interest (T1 line 22100)
- Business investment losses (actual amount, with the s. 39(1)(c)/ABIL math handled)
- Prior child support and prior spousal support paid to a previous family
- Prior-period self-employment adjustments under s. 34.1
Power-user overrides
If you've already done the tax math yourself and just want to override what the engine computes, the advanced panel lets you set the federal and provincial tax amounts, CPP and EI contributions, the Canada Child Benefit, GST/HST credit, provincial benefits, the spousal amount credit, notional child support, and the Section 7 own-share number directly. Most users never need this. It exists because some users want it.
The output is the same regardless of how many fields you fill in: the SSAG low / mid / high monthly amount, both endpoints of the duration range, and a detailed report showing the Guidelines income used for each spouse and the math underneath. No upload, no account.
For background on how the underlying child support figure gets calculated — which the with-child formula needs — see our guide to calculating child support in BC.
How to read the result: low, mid, high
A SSAG calculator never gives you one number. It gives you a range, because BC judges have discretion within the range. The low end and the high end are both legally defensible — what changes is the underlying factual picture.
The low end tends to be appropriate where the recipient has good earning prospects after a reasonable transition, the relationship was shorter, there are limited compensatory claims, or the payor has stretched obligations elsewhere.
The high end applies where the recipient has reduced earning capacity tied to the relationship (a long career break for childcare, a delayed return to work, supporting a partner through training), there are strong compensatory claims, or the payor's surplus income is substantial.
The mid-range is a commonly ordered figure in BC. It's also where many negotiated settlements land. The number is not magic — it just reflects that, absent strong facts pulling one way, the middle of a defensible range is the path of least resistance.
The SSAG itself is advisory, not binding. A judge can go above the range, below it, or order something structurally different (lump sum, time-limited award, step-down). But the further from the SSAG range a result is, the more the order has to be explained.
Taxes and spousal support
This is where the with-child formula's complexity comes from, and where a lot of self-represented people make expensive mistakes.
Periodic spousal support paid under a written agreement or court order is deductible to the payor under section 60(b) of the Income Tax Act, and taxable as income to the recipient. To qualify, the amount has to be "an allowance on a periodic basis" — meaning monthly support under an agreement or order. A handshake transfer between bank accounts doesn't qualify.
Lump-sum spousal support is generally not deductible and not taxable. That changes the after-tax math significantly — a $50,000 lump sum is a different animal from $1,000 per month over four years.
Child support under any agreement or order made after May 1997 is neither taxable to the recipient nor deductible to the payor. The Income Tax Act implements this by subtracting the child support component out of the spousal-support deduction formula in section 56.1 before the spousal deduction is computed.
The calculator on simplyseparation.ca runs a full 2026 federal and BC income tax engine so the with-child SSAG result reflects actual after-tax dollars in each household — which is the whole point of the formula.
A note on currency: the 2025 Federal Child Support Tables came into effect October 1, 2025. Any with-child SSAG calculation done before that date used the prior 2017 tables and will be slightly different now. Re-run your numbers if you're working from a printout older than late 2025.
Common mistakes when using a spousal support calculator
A few things to watch for, especially if you're doing this on your own.
Skipping the entitlement question. A calculator will hand you a number for any two incomes. That number is meaningless if there is no entitlement. Couples who lived together for 6 months, both worked full-time at similar wages, and have no children typically have no spousal support claim — but the calculator won't tell you that.
Using outdated tax data or table amounts. If you're using anything other than 2026 federal/BC tax rates or pre-October-2025 child support tables, your with-child number is off. Make sure whatever tool you're using is current.
Treating SSAG as binding. It's advisory. A judge in BC can go outside the range if they have a good reason. So can two spouses who agree on a different number — the SSAG range is a benchmark, not a ceiling or a floor.
Forgetting that the recipient's income matters even when it's zero. A recipient with $0 of declared income but reasonable earning capacity may have their income imputed for support purposes. The calculator can't impute income — but a judge can, and so can a competent negotiator across the table. If the income numbers don't reflect what each spouse could reasonably earn, the SSAG output is built on sand.
Quoting the high end as the answer. The range exists for a reason. Quoting only the high end (if you're the recipient) or the low end (if you're the payor) is a fast way to lose credibility in negotiation.
FAQ
How is spousal support calculated in BC in 2026?
Under the SSAG. If there are no children, the formula gives 1.5%–2% of the gross income gap per year of cohabitation, capped at 50% of the gap, with duration of 0.5–1 year per year of relationship. If there are children, the formula runs in net incomes and targets the recipient receiving 40–46% of the parties' combined net disposable income after taxes and child support. A BC spousal support calculator runs both formulas automatically.
Do I have to pay spousal support if we weren't married?
Possibly. Under section 3 of the BC Family Law Act, unmarried couples who lived in a marriage-like relationship for at least 2 continuous years — or who have a child together and lived together for any period — are spouses for support purposes. Entitlement still has to be established, but the SSAG and the FLA apply just as they would for a married couple.
How long does spousal support last in BC?
Without children: 0.5–1 year of support for every year of cohabitation, indefinite at 20+ years or under the rule of 65. With children: the longer of the without-child duration test or until the youngest child finishes high school.
Is spousal support taxable?
Periodic spousal support paid under an agreement or order is taxable to the recipient and deductible to the payor. Lump-sum spousal support is generally neither. Child support is never taxable or deductible, regardless of how it's paid.
Can I rely on a free BC spousal support calculator?
For a starting point, yes. For a final settlement or court order, no. The SSAG is advisory and fact-driven, and inputs like imputed income, special expenses, and section 7 add-ons all change the answer. Use the calculator to set expectations, then get advice on the inputs that aren't obvious.
If you came here for a starting number, the calculator gives you that in about half a minute. For why we built it free and what we're trying to do for BC families, see our mission post.