Is Child Support Tax Deductible

You may be wondering if child support is tax deductible. Taxable income is made up of the income earned from your wages, investments, a business (if applicable) and any taxable government payments. Child support payments are not tax-deductible because they are not incurred in gaining or producing assessable income and are private or domestic in nature.

The child support paid can be in either cash payments or non-cash items. Income is one of the main factors that affect how much child support you pay or receive, but the DHS may use a different calculation than the Australian Tax Office to determine your payable child support in the first place. If you pay child support, this can affect the calculated income used to determine how much you may receive for family assistance payments, low income supplements or carer allowances.

For the recipients of child support, child support payments you receive may or may not be subject to tax. Generally, you will not need to pay tax on child support payments that you have received.

This is the same for recipients of spousal maintenance payments and is due to the fact that the Australian Tax Office does not include these payments as income. It is necessary to pay tax on certain government benefit payments received from Centrelink or the Department of Human Services. For taxable payments, the tax payable can be deducted by the department before you receive it.