Soulsby and Soulsby (Child support)

This matter concerned an application by the father, Mr. Soulsby, to exclude certain post-separation income from his adjusted taxable income for the purposes of child support assessment. The dispute arose from the Registrar's decision regarding the father's application under section 44 of the Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988. The father sought to have income earned after his separation from the mother excluded from his adjusted taxable income for the relevant income year, arguing it was earned as a consequence of the marital breakdown and not in the ordinary course of events.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the father had met the criteria under section 44 of the Act to have a portion of his post-separation income excluded from his adjusted taxable income. Specifically, the Tribunal had to determine if the additional income derived by the father was earned in accordance with a pattern of earnings established after separation and if it was of a kind that it would not have been reasonable to expect would have been earned in the ordinary course of events had the parents remained together. The Tribunal also considered the limitations imposed by section 44(3), which restricts the exclusion to 30% or less of the applicant's adjusted taxable income.

The Tribunal reasoned that the legislative intent behind section 44 was to allow for the exclusion of income that a parent would not have earned had they not separated, thereby mitigating the financial impact of the separation. The concept of "ordinary course of events" was interpreted to mean income that would have been earned regardless of the change in relationship status. In this case, the Tribunal found that while some of the father's increased earnings were a result of actions taken post-separation, not all of it met the strict criteria for exclusion. The Tribunal concluded that a partial amount of the post-separation income should be excluded, as it was reasonable to expect that some of the income would have been earned even if the separation had not occurred.

Consequently, the Tribunal set aside the decision under review and substituted it with a new decision that excluded a partial amount of the father's post-separation income from his adjusted taxable income for the relevant period. This adjustment was made in accordance with the provisions of section 44 of the Act.