Tudor and Taylor (Child support)

This matter concerned an appeal by Tudor against a decision of the Child Support Registrar, affirmed by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, regarding the retrospective adjustment of child support assessments. The dispute centred on whether the conditions were met to apply the parties' actual taxable incomes for a particular financial year to the administrative assessment of child support.

The primary legal issue before the court was whether the Registrar had erred in refusing to retrospectively apply the parties' actual adjusted taxable incomes to the child support assessment for the 2019-2020 financial year. Specifically, the court had to determine if the requirements of section 65 of the *Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988* (Cth) were satisfied, which would permit such a retrospective adjustment.

The court affirmed the Tribunal's decision, finding that the conditions stipulated in section 65 of the *Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988* were not met. The legislation requires that an application for a retrospective adjustment be made by a party to the assessment and that the other party consent to the adjustment, or that the Registrar be satisfied that the failure to provide the actual income information was due to circumstances beyond the applicant's control. In this instance, the court found no evidence that the applicant had met these requirements, and therefore, the Registrar was correct in refusing to retrospectively apply the actual incomes to the assessment.