Kanabury and Kanabury (Child support)

This matter concerned an appeal by the father, Mr Kanabury, against a decision of the Child Support Registrar concerning the calculation of his child support assessment. The dispute centred on whether certain salary sacrifice arrangements entered into by Mr Kanabury should be included as part of his assessable income for the purposes of the child support assessment. The case was heard by Member D Lambden of the Child Support Australia.

The primary legal issue before the Member was whether the amounts sacrificed by Mr Kanabury from his salary were to be treated as income for the purposes of the child support assessment, notwithstanding the salary sacrifice arrangements. This required the Member to consider the relevant provisions of the *Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988* (Cth) and the *Child Support Assessment Act 1989* (Cth) concerning the definition of income and the treatment of salary sacrifice arrangements.

The Member's reasoning focused on the legislative intent behind the definition of income for child support purposes, which is generally broad to ensure that both parents contribute appropriately to the costs of raising their children. The Member affirmed the Registrar's decision, finding that salary sacrifice arrangements, where an employee forgoes a portion of their ordinary salary or wages in return for a benefit, do not alter the fact that the sacrificed amount was originally part of the employee's assessable income. Therefore, the amounts sacrificed by Mr Kanabury were correctly included in his provisional income for the child support assessment.

The appeal was dismissed, and the original assessment made by the Child Support Registrar was affirmed.