Justice for divorced fathers
The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Monday, April 07, 2008
Re: Divorced father fights taxman, April 2.

Congratulations to George Calogeracos for highlighting some of the
biases and discriminations in family law, federal support guidelines
and tax laws regarding fathers and divorce.

I was caught in the same situation as Mr. Calogeracos. After a lengthy
and costly court battle, I won joint custody and equal access. I also
discovered I could not claim either of my sons as equivalent-to-
spouse, yet my ex-wife could. All because I paid child support. There
are too many assumptions in family and tax law that side with one
parent, the mother, and unfairly punish the father. The road to
correct these injustices will require legislative change.

Sadly, most fathers cannot afford such expensive battles after eroding
their life savings in court trying to gain equal access and joint
custody. The amount of support awarded is crippling too, even in
shared custody situations.

The tone of the letter from the finance minister speaks volumes about
the hurdle fathers face in trying to achieve fairness and sanity. Mr.
Calogeracos was basically told to "shut up or put up".

Either leave the tax law alone or there "might" be changes to the
child support laws to increase your payments -- in effect eliminating
any savings he might gain from the same tax break his ex-wife
receives. The mother's income is not a factor in this tax rule at all
yet the reason for the break to mothers is that their income is
assumed to be lower than the fathers'. This must be a ridiculous carry-
over from Family Law where the recipient of support's income is not a
factor in child support determination. Most mothers can claim their
legal fees as a tax deduction under the Tax Act, yet fathers can not.
Revenue Canada is living in a fantasy world to think an ex-spouse
would willingly share half of the tax refund in shared custody
situations. I hope this trial will bring much needed legislative
change.

Michael Ball,

Ottawa

© The Ottawa Citizen 2008