Family Tax Benefit (FTB) and child support for children born as a result of a surrogacy arrangement or via artificial conception procedure (including children of same-sex couples) 277-51070040

If the customer advises of separation, there are key steps they should consider in order to protect their personal details. See Separating Safely - protecting personal details.

If a child was born as a result of a surrogacy arrangement and the parents were in a relationship and later separate, MAT requirements will be dependent on whether or not the surrogacy arrangement is recognised under the Family Law Act.

• The parent(s) of a child born under a surrogacy arrangement are recognised (under the Family Law Act) where parentage has been transferred by a court order under a prescribed State/Territory law. In the circumstance where these parents separate they are not exempt from the MAT
• An exemption should be granted where a child is born as a result of a surrogacy arrangement which is not recognised under the Family Law Act. This includes both single parents and couples

For children conceived via an ACP, a number of factors/scenarios will be considered when determining whether the customer is required to obtain child support to meet the requirements of the MAT.

A child is recognised as a child of the birth parent and partner if:

• the child is born as a result of an ACP
• the birth parent and partner were in a de facto relationship at the time, and
• both partners consented to the procedure at the time of conception

In these cases, generally, the partner is presumed to be the other parent of the child. If the parent and the other parent later separate, the customer may be required to obtain child support. These customers should be referred to Child Support to make an application for an assessment. Child Support will make a decision on whether the application can be accepted.

Generally, donors of semen used in artificial insemination by single women have no rights and incur no liabilities in respect of the child born as a result of that pregnancy. Customers may not need to take action to obtain child support from the donor.

The Process page contains further information and the Resources page contains a table to clarify the MAT requirements for a number of ACP scenarios.

When a person adopts a child they become a parent for all legal purposes. Therefore, if another person adopts the child, obtaining child support from the biological parent is not required to meet the MAT. However, if any couple adopt a child and later separate, child support is required to be sought from the other parent listed on the birth certificate or adoption papers.

Same-sex couples are recognised by Services Australia as parents as at 1 July 2009.

Before 1 July 2009, if a customer has a child with their same-sex partner conceived via an ACP, and they later separated, they were not required to obtain child support for the child. The non-biological parent MAT code IVF was applied until 30 June 2009.

Under the changes recognising same-sex parentage, an FTB customer's current or previous same-sex partner is likely to be recognised as the other parent of the child.

From 1 July 2009, where the previous partner is recognised as the child's other parent, the customer is required to meet the MAT to continue to receive more than base rate FTB Part A for the child. To meet the MAT, the customer is required to take reasonable action to obtain child support within 13 weeks of the date of separation.

There will be situations in which an FTB customer may still not be required to take action to obtain child support to meet the MAT (for example, where the other person did not consent to the procedure at the time of conception of the child).

An FTB customer may be required to take action to obtain child support to meet the MAT (to be eligible to receive more than the base rate of FTB Part A). Information provided verbally is used to assess whether:

• the child is a child of the current relationship
• a MAT exemption applies, or
• the FTB customer is required to take reasonable action to obtain child support from the child's other parent

All FTB customers obtaining child support need to provide evidence that the person from whom they are claiming child support is a parent of the child.

The decision, and evidence of parentage, is based on the family circumstances of the child from the same-sex relationship.