Zara – Tax Court of Canada confirms that 60/40 is “near equal”

The definition for Canada child benefit purposes of a “shared-custody parent” refers inter alia to a parent residing with the child “on an equal or near equal basis”. Boyle J found that:

The decisions of this Court applying the near equal requirement have recognized near equality if the time residing with each parent is within the 60:40 range, and has rejected near equality at 65:35.

He then went through a detailed numerical analysis of the evidence to conclude that the father was a bit over that 40% mark, even without giving him some benefit for the children’s hours in school on days when the joint-custody agreement assigned them to their mother.

Neal Armstrong. Summary of Zara v. The Queen, 2017 TCC 45 under s. 122.6 - “shared-custody parent”.