Vohra – Tax Court of Canada states that it did not have the power to infer an allocation of a court order for support between child and spousal support

Unless the written agreement or court order under which support payments are made identifies an amount of support as being solely for the support of the recipient, each support payment made under the agreement or order by the parent of a child is deemed to be a child support payment and, therefore, is not deductible to the payer.

Here, a consent order of the Ontario Superior Court provided that the taxpayer was to pay his separated spouse "temporary support in the amount of $8,000 per month" (no subsequent order was made). Spiro J rejected the taxpayer's submission that these terms should be read in the context of the separation agreement which this consent order supplanted, and which had provided that only $2,500 per month of the previous support payments ($6,000 per month) constituted child support, with the balance as spousal support. He stated that he did not have the “power to read words into the Consent Order or to amend it.”

Accordingly, the full $8,000 support amount payable pursuant to the consent order constituted a non-deductible child support amount.

Neal Armstrong. Summary of Vohra v. The King, 2025 TCC 93 under s. 56.1(4) – child support amount.