Determining if a payment is child support/maintenance income for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) 277-51080010

Is it provided as child support?

• Yes, go to Step 2
• No, go to Step 3

• Yes, go to Step 5
• No, go to Step 6

• Yes, go to Step 4
• No, go to Step 6

• Yes, go to Step 5
• No, go to Step 6

See exempt maintenance income.

• Yes, go to Step 6
• No, go to Step 8

If maintenance income arrears are received for a child who is no longer an FTB child or who does not attract more than base rate FTB Part A, go to Step 9.

If it is ordinary income of:

• the child, see FTB child income
• the person, go to Step 7

Does the customer want to revise estimate of adjusted taxable income for FTB?

• Yes, see Estimating income for Family Assistance payments
• No, record that customer was invited to revise estimate on a DOC
• If customer or partner receives an income support payment, assess and record income and/or assets
• A transfer of an asset is not income in itself, but must be assessed and recorded as an asset for income support payments
• Record details on a DOC and finalise activity

Procedure ends here.

If the customer receives maintenance income and:

• they have registered their case for collection by Child Support, refer the customer to Child Support if they receive child support directly from the paying parent. For contact details, see Child Support
• they have chosen private collection, from 1 July 2012, unless the customer is eligible for an exemption (i.e. due to family and domestic violence), the customer will be deemed to receive their full child support entitlement for Maintenance Income Test (MIT) purposes, regardless of whether or not they are actually receiving more or less than their entitlement
• Manual assessment and coding is only required in the following situations:
• the customer has a partial exemption in place and they are privately collecting less than their current child support assessment amount, or more than the amount they previously advised they were able to receive
• the customer privately collects spousal maintenance in addition to their current child support entitlement
• the customer transfers from private collect to Child Support collect and asks Child Support to collect arrears owed from the private collect period
• the customer privately collects more than their current child support assessment amount and the additional amount received relates to arrears owed from a private collect period prior to 1 July 2012. See Recording private maintenance income, or
• they have received a lump sum payment, transfer of an asset or property settlement as maintenance income. See Capitalised maintenance income
• it is part of a child support agreement accepted by Child Support, assessment is automatic from 1 July 2008. For agreements with a start date before 1 July 2008, any non-cash maintenance income may need to be manually coded by Child Support Unit (CSJ) staff. See Child support agreements in Maintenance Income Test (MIT) for Family Tax Benefit (FTB)

Procedure ends here.

If the child is aged 18 and is a non-FTB child or attracts no more than base rate FTB Part A, the case should be referred to the Child Support Unit (CSU).

Look up local Processing Services details for: Child Support Unit

No assumption should be made that some of the arrears are for the child unless Child Support advises that arrears existed before the child left the case.

If the arrears only accumulated after the child left the case, the system has done the right thing by assuming that the arrears are only for children still in the case.