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Family Tax Benefit (FTB) customer receives spousal maintenance 277-51080020

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This page contains information on how spousal maintenance, which is included as maintenance income under the Maintenance Income Test, may affect the rate of Family Tax Benefit (FTB) Part A.

Record spousal maintenance

This table describes how to record spousal maintenance and the effect it may have on the rate of Family Tax Benefit.

Item

Description

1

Child support assessment and spousal maintenance + Read more ...

If the customer has an Agreement or Court Order that includes spousal maintenance and the customer has:

  • not registered the Agreement or Court Order with Child Support, the customer is privately collecting their spousal maintenance. The assessed amount reported to the FAO system will not include spousal maintenance, therefore it must be coded manually
    • Record the amount of spousal maintenance received from the payer as private maintenance income
    • Record all details in a DOC
    • Procedure ends here
  • registered the Agreement or Court Order with Child Support, Child Support will advise Centrelink of the full entitlement amount. There is no need to record privately collected spousal maintenance as a separate amount. Go to Step 2

If the customer receives voluntary spousal maintenance that is not part of an Agreement or Court Order, the Child Support assessed amount reported to the FAO system will not include spousal maintenance, therefore it must be coded manually.

  • Record the amount of spousal maintenance received from the payer as private maintenance income
  • Advise the customer to contact Centrelink if the amount of spousal maintenance received changes
  • Record details on a DOC
  • Procedure ends here

If spousal maintenance is received from a person who is not paying child support, there is nowhere to code this information on the customer's Centrelink record. Record all details in a DOC. Procedure ends here.

2

Child support and spousal maintenance collected through Child Support + Read more ...

If Child Support collects child support payments and spousal maintenance for the customer there is no need to record spousal maintenance as private maintenance income.

If the customer has elected the Disbursement Method, spousal maintenance is included in the estimate of annual maintenance income. It is included in disbursement data sent by Child Support.

  • If the Modified Entitlement Method is used, the system automatically applies the assessment method (Entitlement or Disbursement) that results in the higher estimate of annual maintenance income. If this is the Entitlement Method, spousal maintenance is included in the estimate of annual maintenance income if the Child Support collection relates to an Agreement or Court Order that includes spousal maintenance
  • Spousal maintenance is included in the customer's annual maintenance income during the reconciliation process after the end of the financial year, regardless of the assessment method used during the financial year

Record details of spousal maintenance on a DOC.