Author: Strategic Lawyers

For most couples with children separating will mean the Federal Department of Human Services undertakes a child support assessment and later orders for money to be paid.

The amount of child support that needs to be paid is calculated using the formula we have set out below.

The basic formula is:

1. The self-support amount – the amount the government says people need to live off- is subtracted from both parent’s incomes for the most recent financial year.
2. Those adjusted incomes are added together and the percentage of the income pool each parent earns is then calculated.
3. The amount of time the children spend with each parent is calculated as a percentage.
4. If one parent earns more but has the children for less time, the percentage of the time they have the children for is subtracted from the percentage share they have of the income pool. This is because they are viewed as paying for the children’s needs when they’re in their care but owing their share of the children’s upkeep when they’re not.
5. We then take the government assigned figure for the cost of raising children and multiply it by the percentage calculated in step four to get the amount of child support payable.

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Working Formula

STEP 1: For example, let’s assume we have a couple that has one child who is two years old and one half of the relationship earned $50,000 over the course of the past financial year and the other $100,000.

We then need to subtract the amount the government says they need to live-off – which for 2018 is $24,535. For the first parent this makes their adjusted income $25,465 and for the second $75,465.

STEP 2: This means the total assessable income pool of the former couple is $100,930 a year and the person whose assessable income is $25,465 brought-in 25.3% of that income pool, while the other person brought-in 74.7%.

STEP 3: The next part to work out is how much time the children spend with each person.

For example, a relatively common parenting arrangement for separated couples may be that one half has the children for three nights every fortnight and half of the school holidays (in Queensland half of the school holidays is about 38 nights a year).

This is equal to 166 nights a year. To work out the percentage of the year that is equal to we simply divide 166 by 365 (the number of days in a year) and multiply by 100.

This means the children spend 31.78% of the time with one parent and 68.22% with the other.

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STEP 4: Essentially what child support does is equalise any gap between how much one person earns and how much of the time they spend caring for the kid/s.

Let’s assume the parent who earns $100,000 is the parent who has the children for 31.78% of the time.

In that case we would subtract the amount of time that parent has the child for (31.68%) from their share of the income (74.7%) – which gives us a figure of 43.02%.

So, that parent would have to compensate the other parent for 43.02% of the cost of raising the children.

STEP 5: The dollar value the Department assigns to the cost of raising children is worked out using the following table – which you can view here:

http://guides.dss.gov.au/child-support-guide/2/4/2#coststable

So, in our scenario we would go to the Cost of the Children Table for 2018.

We then use the assessable income we worked out in Step 1 to look up the relevant category.

Our couple falls into the category of $73,606-$110,409 of assessable income per year, which means the cost of looking after the child is calculated at $11,777 plus 12 cents for every dollar earned over $73,606.

In this case this is equal to: ($75,465 – $73,607) x 0.12 = $222.96.

So, the Department would assess the cost of raising this child to be $11,999.96 for 2018.

We then use the percentage we calculated above – for the parent earning $100,000 a year – to calculate the fraction of the cost of raising the child that is outstanding.

In this case that is $11,999.96 divided by 100 x 43.02 = $5,162.38

This means the person earning $100,000 a year, who has their two year-old child for 166 nights a year would pay $5,162.38 a year in child support.

TOWNSVILLE Police have fined 44 cyclists for talking on their phone while riding their bicycle, over the past four years.

The most recent data from the Queensland Government shows the fines – which are valued at $391 – are being issued with surprising regularity.

A report about a man in Loganholme in south Brisbane copping the unusual infringement notice made national headlines this week.

Check out these other stories on our blog:

>Why are Townsville Police fining people for not locking their car?

>North Queensland man beats DUI charge with surprising defence

State government data reveals this was far from an isolated incident with Townsville Police issuing 15 fines for talking on a mobile while cycling, in 2016-17, one in 2015-16, 19 in 2015-14 and nine in 2013-14.

Strategic Lawyers’ Principal Lawyer Justin Ireland said his firm is offering free case appraisals for people fined over this issue.

“Under Section 15 of Queensland’s Transport Operations (Road Use Management – Road Rules) Regulation 2009 both cars and bicycles are defined as vehicles,” Mr Ireland said.  

“This means if someone is riding a bicycle on the road many of the same road rules apply to them as apply to cars.

“Under Section 300 of the same regulations it states the driver of a vehicle (which includes bicycles in this case) must not use a mobile phone if the vehicle is moving, or stationary but not parked.

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“The maximum penalty is surprisingly high at $2611 – it’s unclear why the government has done this but there is an exception for police and emergency vehicles.”

Last month it was revealed the same maximum fine is in place for drivers who fail to lock their car, it is unclear why the maximum fine is so high for these offences.

“I personally think that should be reduced to the $391 fine presently used by police and the parliament should have to be accountable for an increase and pass an amendment,” Mr Ireland said.

“My personal opinion is that it shouldn’t be an offence for a person riding away from the road to talk on their phone, but it should be illegal to do this if you’re on the road.

“There could be an amendment to create an exception for off-road push bike riders in these circumstances, and also for bicycle riders not to have to wear helmets unless they’re on the road, which I think would be appropriate.

“On the V8 weekend in Townsville I personally saw police drive off the road to a footpath and stop and fine a young kid on Queens Rd for not wearing a helmet, surely they have better things to do?”

Here at Strategic Lawyers we know that being contactable is essential – that’s why we’ve just launched a competition to promote our new number: 13 14 LAW.

For existing clients we’re still available on (07) 4795 1114 so there’s no need to update our details in your phone.

And just so those people who don’t know about us yet know what number to call when they need legal help we’re running a competition on Facebook and on local radio – Power 100 and Star 106.3 – to find the best person to sing our new jingle.

There’s $600 available for  the winner and free booze for the funniest entry.

Jump across to our Facebook page for full details on how to enter.

The past month has been a big one for our firm with some new faces, lots of new interesting cases and some big wins.

Firstly, we have been joined by three new paralegals – all of whom are studying Law at James Cook University.

The first to come on board was Damon Johnson. Damon is presently in his first year of university and attended Pimlico State High School right here in Townsville.

Also starting with us this month were Stephanie Weidemann and William Hunter. William is a local lad who attended Townsville Grammar and is now in the second year of his law studies while Stephanie brings with her a wealth of experience having previously served in the defence forces.

Coincidentally last week Damon and Steph faced off in the university mooting competition (where they pretend to go to court) with Damon emerging victorious and taking out the Best Individual Speaker Award on the day – although we’re reliably informed Steph is set to file a strong objection.

In other news, our much-loved solicitor Anthony Sturgeon marked a major milestone with five years ticking by since he was admitted as a solicitor.

Anthony has had some big wins in the legal arena in the past month and he’s also been making headlines in the local media with an appearance on Channel 7 and in the Townsville Bulletin.

And while our family lawyer Robert Ballais and our key commercial lawyer Steve Hodgson have also been enjoying some big wins in the legal arena they might be needing some luck on the basketball court.

The pair have been hotly contesting the A Reserve Men’s Championship Season on Wednesday nights with their team the Whirlwinds set to make the finals. 

However, while the competition leaders have been averaging more than 20 points a game Mr Ballais has a meagre average of six points.

But, as Rob happily pointed out, he’s better at basketball than Steve who is second in the league for personal fouls.

Also in the sporting arena the boss Justin Ireland and yours truly (marketing manager Lachlan Thompson) have been training hard to do a three-kilometre open ocean swim on Magnetic Island.

Obviously “training” and “hard” are subjective terms – so far, we have swum a few laps, once.

Our legal secretary Casey Wilson has been smashing it in the gym and even took out second place in the Townsville Central F45 eight-week-challenge.

Now, we’re reliably told Casey is set to take first.

And last but not least our key accounts person, Francina De Chazal is presently in Hobart enjoying the Tasmanian sites and cuisine.

Over the past five years police in Townsville have fined 68 people for not locking their car.

While police generally issue the fines for $44, under Queensland legislation the maximum amount they can fine people for this “offence” is actually a whopping $2611.

The fines were revealed in public data posted on the Queensland Government website.

From Queensland Police’s perspective the fines are aimed at preventing the theft of cars.

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The news of the Townsville fines comes as police on the Sunshine Coast in the state’s south-east pose for local media while opening the doors of unlocked cars at a Stocklands shopping mall.

During that media stunt no fines were issued.

And south of the border a New South officer said while police did have the power to issue fines like this it would be “crook” for them to enforce it – although he didn’t rule it out.

“It would be a crook day when we have to do that, but that’s one of the options up our sleeve,” Detective Inspector Brad Ainsworth told the ABC in July.

Key criminal lawyer at Strategic Lawyers, Anthony Sturgeon queried the logic of fining people over a clearly victimless crime.

“It’s ridiculous to fine people for this – you are punishing the potential victims of a crime rather than a perpetrator,” Mr Sturgeon said.

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> Man’s surprising defence to drink-driving

> Your rights if police stop you for a random drug search

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“Also, the parliament needs to pass an amendment reducing the maximum fine down from $2611 – even if people are currently only being fined $44 – the idea someone could face a fine of thousands when all they have done is make themselves vulnerable to a criminal act is absurd.

“This is a shocking waste of police resources and I suspect the real reason the fine amount is so low is it means people are unlikely to take the police to court to fight them – because the court costs of any appeal would quickly outstrip the value.

“This isn’t the only absurd part of the law we’re talking about here – the same section also says you’ll get a fine for $2,611 if you park your car in the snow and it slides away – not something I’d imagine gets a lot of use given the laws are Queensland specific.”