Girling and Armitt (Child support)

This matter concerned an appeal by the father, Mr. Girling, against a departure determination made by the Registrar of the Child Support Agency. The dispute centred on the Registrar's decision to attribute income to the father from a company and a trust for the purposes of calculating child support. The appeal was heard by the Federal Circuit Court of Australia.

The primary legal issue before the Court was whether the Registrar had erred in attributing income from the company and trust to the father, thereby departing from the standard child support assessment. This involved determining whether the father had the capacity to benefit from these entities and whether the Registrar had correctly applied the principles for departure from the standard assessment.

The Court reviewed the evidence presented regarding the father's involvement with the company and trust, and the flow of funds. It was found that the Registrar had not adequately considered the father's actual capacity to benefit from the income generated by these entities, nor had sufficient regard to the reasons for the income not being distributed to him. The Court applied the principles of child support departure, focusing on whether the father's actual financial position was significantly different from that which would be assumed under the standard assessment, and whether the Registrar's decision was justified.

The Court set aside the Registrar's departure determination and substituted its own decision, finding that the evidence did not support the attribution of the full amount of income from the company and trust to the father for child support purposes.