Section 40E — Child Support (Assessment) Act 1989: Simplified outline

The following is a simplified outline of this Division: • The income used in determining a parent’s capacity to meet the costs of his or her children might be reduced by the following amounts: (a) the self-support amount (to take account of the parent’s need to support himself or herself); (b) a relevant dependent child amount (if the parent cares for a relevant dependent child or step-child of the parent); (c) a multi-case allowance (if the parent has multiple child support cases). • The relevant dependent child amount and the multi-case allowance take account of the costs of relevant dependent children, and children in other child support cases, in a similar way to the way in which the costs of the children are worked out for children in a child support case. • A parent’s adjusted taxable income for a year of income can be reduced under section 44 in respect of a particular child if the parent earns additional income during the first 3 years after separating from the other parent of the child.