Ontario's Online Child Support Service: Who Can Use It?

If you are a parent in Ontario who needs child support set up or changed, going to court may feel like a big step. Ontario offers an online option that can work without a court hearing, but it is not open to everyone.

This article explains what the online Child Support Service does, what it costs, who is shut out of it, and what your other options are if you are not eligible. A lawyer can confirm which route fits your family.

What the online Child Support Service does

Ontario's online Child Support Service can set up or update child support without going to court. It issues a Notice of Calculation or Recalculation, and that notice is sent to the Family Responsibility Office (FRO) for enforcement.

How the service arrives at an amount for your family depends on your situation, so it is worth confirming with a lawyer. Under the child support tables, the amount depends on the paying parent's annual income, the number of children and the province where the paying parent lives.

The fee is a non-refundable $80 each time you use the service, and a fee waiver is possible for low-income households. Government fees can change, so check the current amount before you start.

Who cannot use the service

The service is unavailable in a number of situations. You cannot use it in any of the following cases:

• Parenting time is shared or split.
• A parent or a child lives outside Ontario.
• A child is over 17.5 or married.
• The order involved undue hardship or imputed income.
• The payor is self-employed, earns cash income, or is a partner or majority shareholder in a business.
• The payor earns over $150,000 or under $12,000.

These limits make sense when you look at how complicated those situations can be. Shared parenting, for example, has no automatic formula, and the court looks at the table amounts for each spouse, the increased costs of shared arrangements and each family's circumstances. Self-employed income can also be hard to pin down, and a court may look at income over several years or at a corporation's pre-tax income.

The 2025 tables and existing orders

Updated Federal Child Support Tables took effect on October 1, 2025, and Ontario says the new amounts apply to all Ontario child support matters from that date.

If your order was made before October 1, 2025, the new tables do not change it automatically. A difference between your old amount and the 2025 table amount may count as a change in circumstances, which lets a parent ask a court or the recalculation service to update the order.

Keep in mind that the recalculation service is only available if you are not caught by the exclusions above. If you are, a court application is the likely route. Whether updating is worthwhile depends on your income and your family's facts, so it is worth confirming with a lawyer.

Income proof and yearly updates

Ontario guidance says the paying parent must give the other parent or caregiver proof of income, meaning the last tax return and notice of assessment or reassessment, every year, within 30 days of the original order or agreement date, unless they agree on another timeframe. Under the federal Guidelines, the other spouse can ask in writing, no more than once a year, for updated income documents, and the paying spouse must provide them within 30 days (60 days if living outside Canada and the U.S.).

A change in income can matter too. Any change in circumstances that would result in a different child support order, such as a drop in the payor's income after a job loss, is a change of circumstances for variation.

If you are not eligible: what to do next

If the online service does not fit, Ontario has other routes:

Court filings also involve a Form 13 financial statement with a Form 13A certificate of financial disclosure. Proof needed in court includes three years of tax returns, notices of assessment and proof of current income.

• Check whether any exclusion applies to your family before paying the fee.
• Gather three years of tax returns and notices of assessment.
• Confirm the current fee on the Ontario government site.
• Note that FRO cannot change the amount owed, and arrears keep building under the existing order until it is changed.
• Speak with a lawyer if parenting time, self-employment or high income is involved.

Frequently asked questions