The information above is both input data and computed results as to "residential classification" for each child.

Each child may be in one of 5 classifications depending on who is the residential parent and the amount of contact with the other parent. This classification has been computed for each child according to your details of contact and the results are used below to compute the liability of each party.

Generally it is clear who is the payer (party #1) and who is the payee (party #2), however there will be cases of "sharing arrangements" whereby it will purely be a matter of which party was first to apply to the CSA. Therefore the results below pertain to the registration or potential registration details you have nominated.

The information above sets out the present value of the future liability in "today's dollar". For this statement to be valid it is necessary to concede that wages (of both parties) increase in line with the CPI.

Therefore, while the results nominated as "initial results" will provide the same results as an administrative assessment under the 1989 Act, the results for the remaining years need to be qualified to this concession.

It is submitted that such assumptions, and hence results, are very much within the general ambit of discretional power of the court, especially in regard to applications for property settlement via s 79 of the Family Law Act, the logical use for the results in this site via s 79(4)(g), or for spousal maintenance applications/responses via s 75(2)(na), both of which require the court to consider "any child support under the Child Support (Assessment) Act 1989 that a party to the marriage has provided, or is to provide, for a child of the marriage."

The information above adds to the information already provided as to the total liability for Child Support, the extrapolation of an administrative assessment.

The breakup of the liability on a per child basis is not legislated, only the total liability - and only for the initial year of assessment.

The only valid mathematical means of equating the CSA formulae to apportionment to individual children is to assume that the elder child is the "marginal child". Therefore, by reference to the above results, it will be seen that the marginal liability for Child Support is via the elder child (the child which becomes the first to influence the formulae).

To provide an example, if a 3rd child reaches 18, then the reduction of Child Support from 32% to 27% is attributed to this child rather than the fact that this child was "the first on the block" and so was "worth" 18%.

Therefore the breakup of the liability on a child by child basis by virtue of the mathematical interpolation of the results in the upper graph is perhaps less important than the overall liability (without apportionment), but is nevertheless instructive to the parties and is provided on such a basis.

In justification of the various formats used to present the total liability for Child Support, there are 4 totally independent "check sums" employed. In all cases to date, the end result has been in agreement for the 4 check sums. If this is not the result in your case, please email us and we will investigate any such disparity.

Technically, the site may be viewed on a monitor set up as 16 or 256 colours and preferably at 640 X 480. The intention is that "on screen" viewing of the report should be the normal method, however it is recognised that a printout may be required, eg for presentation to court. Recognising that the graphical details do not lend themselves to black and white printing, the design of the layout has been chosen as that which presents best on screen. However a bubble jet printer retailing at $240 can produce very good results, albeit with a high usage of ink.

To assist in printing, the text has been arranged such that the 3 separate graphics will print on 3 separate pages (depending on your page setup preferences on your internet browser). In this way you can simply select individual pages (1, 2 or 3) for printing. Page 4 is text only.

The green text may be printed as green or the option to print as black may be employed. It is best to first use print preview before using expensive ink. You may also wish to delete the tags at the top and bottom of the page and provide a 3 cm left margin to allow for binding of the printed page.