Free BC Child Support Calculator

In British Columbia, child support is governed by the Federal Child Support Guidelines, which apply to married parents under the Divorce Act and — by operation of BC's Family Law Act — to common-law and unmarried parents as well.

The Guidelines turn child support from a discretionary decision into a mostly formula-driven calculation, designed to produce consistent, predictable outcomes. The calculator above applies the Guidelines exactly as a BC court would, using the updated tables that took effect in October 2025.

The starting point is the Schedule I table amount. Schedule I is a federally published table that looks up a monthly base support figure using three inputs: the payor parent's gross annual income, the number of children entitled to support, and the province or territory where the payor lives. BC has its own column in the table, so a payor living in BC with an $80,000 income and two children will see a different figure than the same family in Alberta or Ontario.

To get your number, use the calculator above — it pulls directly from the October 2025 Schedule I tables.

Section 9 of the Guidelines kicks in when each parent has the children for at least 40% of the time over the course of a year. Courts count overnights, after-school hours, and other direct parenting time — not just weekends. Once the 40% threshold is crossed, the straight table amount no longer applies.

The most common approach is the set-off method: each parent's Schedule I table amount is calculated as if they were the sole payor, and the higher earner pays the difference. This reflects that both households now incur substantial costs for the children. Courts can then adjust the set-off figure up or down based on the increased costs of shared parenting (two sets of beds, duplicate supplies, higher transportation costs) and the overall financial position of both households.

If you're also calculating spousal support, try the BC Spousal Support Calculator, which runs the set-off automatically inside the with-child SSAG formula.

Section 7 of the Guidelines covers “special or extraordinary expenses” — costs that fall outside what the table amount is meant to cover. Qualifying categories include:

• Childcare required for a parent to work, look for work, or attend school
• The portion of medical and dental insurance premiums attributable to the child
• Health-related expenses above $100 per year not covered by insurance (orthodontics, therapy, prescriptions, etc.)
• Extraordinary expenses for primary or secondary education
• Post-secondary education expenses
• Extraordinary expenses for extracurricular activities

Before splitting, you deduct any tax credits, subsidies, or direct contributions the child makes (for example, a student's summer earnings going toward tuition). The calculator above handles the proportionate split automatically once you enter the expenses.

Transparency is the whole point of this tool. Here's exactly what happens when you press “Calculate”:

• Table lookup:we apply the October 2025 updated Federal Child Support Guidelines, Schedule I, using the province you select. For incomes between table rows, we apply the Guidelines' prescribed interpolation formula.
• Shared parenting: if you indicate 40%+ parenting time, we run a set-off — we calculate each parent's table amount separately and subtract.
• Section 7:we pro-rate each special expense by the ratio of the parents' incomes after netting out any credits or subsidies you enter.
• No data leaves your browser. The calculation runs client-side. We don't store, transmit, or log your inputs.

The calculation engine is open source under Apache-2.0 — this calculator is powered by OpenSSAG.