Deductible Child Maintenance Expenditure (DCME) 108-01070080

The full value of the amount of child support paid by a person or their partner to another person can be taken off their income used for FTB, CCB, CCS, SBP, PPL and CA.

For child support to be counted as DCME:

• the person must be the paying parent of a child support assessment, or other agreement with a child support liability, e.g. court ordered
• the child needs to be the natural or adopted child of the person paying the child support
• the person receiving the child support cannot be the customer's partner
• the amount of child support to assess is the amount paid during the financial year, or for SBP claims during the 6 months following the stillbirth
• any spousal maintenance paid for the other parent of the child is not included

Before 1 July 2001, only half of the amount paid in child support could be taken off income used for family assistance.

Child support can be paid through a formal or informal agreement and can include:

• cash payments
• non-cash child support (for example, school fees, rent, mortgage payments, clothes, etc.)
• capitalised maintenance (lump sum payment, transfer of property, etc.)

It is important only to include the expense if the child will receive some benefit from it.

In some cases, only a proportion of the amount paid can be treated as maintenance for the child. For example, if a customer is paying mortgage payments but still has 50% interest in the house, 50% of the total amount paid by the customer can be counted as DCME if it is not being paid as maintenance for the other parent (spousal maintenance).

Customers should be advised to keep evidence of maintenance payments or non-cash benefits not delivered via the child support agency

For information about applying DCME to the Carer Allowance income test, see Carer Allowance (CA) income test - determining reference tax year and assessable income components.