How the CCB amount is actually calculated

Updated July 31, 2026 · figures for the July 2026 – June 2027 benefit year

The CCB looks complicated because the reduction happens in two stages with different percentages. The underlying formula is short enough to write on one line, and once you have seen it applied to real numbers it stops being mysterious.

The formula in one line

Benefit = (sum of the maximums for your children) minus (a percentage of your income above the first threshold, plus a smaller percentage of anything above the second). Everything below is that sentence with the real numbers filled in.

Step 1 — your maximum

For the July 2026 to June 2027 benefit year, the Government of Canada pays up to $8,157 per year for each child under 6 and $6,883 per year for each child aged 6 to 17. That is an increase of up to $160 and $135 respectively over the previous year, following the annual indexation that takes effect every July 1.

Add these up for every child in your care. A family with a 4-year-old and a 9-year-old has a maximum of $8,157 + $6,883 = $15,040.

Step 2 — your adjusted family net income

AFNI is the combined net income (line 23600) of you and your spouse or common-law partner, with a few adjustments — registered disability savings plan income is subtracted, repayments are added back. For most households it is simply the two net incomes added together.

The July 2026 to June 2027 payments use your 2025 tax return. A raise you received in 2025 shows up in your benefit in July 2026, not before.

Step 3 — the reduction

Three bands, based on the 2025 AFNI:

The percentages depend on how many children you have, and they are set in the Income Tax Act — unlike the dollar amounts, they are not indexed and do not change each July:

Note what this means in practice: a family of four children loses benefit almost three and a half times faster per dollar earned than a family with one child. The maximum is larger, but so is the slope. That combination is deliberate — the programme is designed to concentrate support at lower incomes rather than to scale evenly with family size.

Worked example 1 — below the first threshold

Two children aged 3 and 7, AFNI $34,000. The income is under $38,237, so there is no reduction at all: $8,157 + $6,883 = $15,040 per year, or $1,253.33 per month.

Worked example 2 — the government's own example

One child aged 5, one aged 9, AFNI $65,000. Maximum is $15,040. The income sits in the first tier, and with two children the rate is 13.5%:

• Income above the threshold: $65,000 − $38,237 = $26,763
• Reduction: $26,763 × 13.5% = $3,613
• Benefit: $15,040 − $3,613 = $11,427 per year

Employment and Social Development Canada used this exact family in its July 2026 announcement and quoted "approximately $11,430" — the small difference is rounding in the press release, and it is a useful check that the formula above is the real one.

Worked example 3 — above the second threshold

One child aged 10, AFNI $95,000. Maximum is $6,883. The income is past $82,847, so both stages apply:

• First tier, applied to the full band: ($82,847 − $38,237) × 7% = $3,122.70
• Second tier: ($95,000 − $82,847) × 3.2% = $388.90
• Total reduction: $3,511.60
• Benefit: $6,883 − $3,511.60 = $3,371.40 per year, about $281 per month

Why two families with the same income get different amounts

Three reasons, in order of how often they explain the gap:

• Ages. A child turning 6 costs the household $1,274 per year in benefit under the current rates. The change takes effect the month after the birthday.
• Number of children. More children raise the maximum, but they also raise the reduction percentage — which is why the benefit does not scale linearly.
• Shared custody. Each parent gets 50%, calculated on their own income, so two households can show very different numbers for the same child.

You can test all three in seconds with the calculator — the breakdown shows each line of the formula rather than just the final figure.

What the benefit looks like across the income range

One child aged 8 (maximum $6,883), to show the shape of the curve rather than a single point:

Two things stand out. The reduction is gentle at first — $10,000 of extra income costs a one-child family only about $700 a year. And the benefit does not disappear at a cliff: even at $150,000 with one child there is still something being paid, because the second-tier rate of 3.2% is deliberately shallow.

Checking your own payment against this

Your CRA account carries a statement of account for the benefit year, broken down by component. Compare it with the calculator in this order:

1. Confirm the CRA is using the income you expect — it uses the assessed return, so a reassessment changes it.
2. Confirm the number and ages of children match, remembering that a child who turned 6 during the year changes the amount mid-year.
3. Subtract any provincial top-up and the child disability benefit before comparing, since this calculator estimates the federal CCB only.

If it still does not reconcile, the usual culprit is marital status: a partner added or removed changes AFNI and therefore everything downstream.

What is not in this formula

The child disability benefit (up to $3,480 per eligible child for 2026–2027) is added separately by the CRA, and provincial or territorial programs are calculated by their own rules — some are paid with the CCB in one deposit, some arrive separately. See provincial and territorial top-ups.