You must have a child support assessment in place before we can accept a limited child support agreement. The payments set out in the agreement must be equal to, or more than, the annual rate in the assessment. We don’t require you to get legal advice before making your agreement, but you can choose to do so.
A parent must have at least 35% care of a child to receive child support under an agreement. Read more about how your percentage of care affects your child support payments.
When we’ve accepted a limited child support agreement, receiving parents can choose between either:
As a parent, you must do all of the following:
- pay your child support in full and on time if you’re the paying parent
- make sure you tell us what care arrangements are in place for your children
- lodge your tax return on time
- report your income accurately
- tell us about any changes of circumstances.
Changes to the care arrangements can affect a child support assessment. You need to tell us about changes straight away. If you don’t tell us within 28 days any of the following may happen:
- your level of care may only apply from the date you tell us
- you may get a child support debt or overpayment
- your assessment may be suspended or ended.
Changes to care arrangements can also impact a child support agreement.
Find out more about how to tell us if your child’s care arrangements change.
If you can’t agree to make a limited agreement with the other parent, you can seek legal advice about a binding child support agreement.