http://decision.tcc-cci.gc.ca/tcc-cci/decisions/en/item/73379/index.do 
Landry v. The Queen (September 9, 2014 – 2014 TCC 275) was a case involving legal fees incurred to terminate support payments to the taxpayer’s children.
[1] The appellant is disputing a reassessment made by the Minister of National Revenue (Minister), disallowing the deduction of legal fees ($17,600) that he claimed in computing his income for the 2010 taxation year.
[2] The appellant was obliged to pay child support, which was deducted from his income by the Percepteur des pensions alimentaires in the Province of Quebec.
[3] He maintains that, in 2010, his two children reached the age of majority and became financially independent and that he was no longer obliged to pay support to his former spouse for his children.
[4] He retired on June 1, 2010, and began receiving his retirement benefits starting on that date.
[5] However, in order to receive the entire amount of his retirement income, he had to apply to the Superior Court of Québec (Family Division) to obtain a judgment permanently cancelling the support for the two children.
[6] He claimed the deduction of the legal fees that he had incurred during this process, and the Minister disallowed it.
[7] The Minister argues that the fees were incurred to terminate the support and that, as such, they are personal or living expenses, which are not deductible under paragraph 18(1)(h) of the Income Tax Act.
Notwithstanding some clever arguments raised by the appellant the case law was squarely against him:
[10]
Indeed, in Nadeau v. M.N.R., 2003 FCA 400, [2004] 1 F.C.R. 587, the Federal Court of Appeal clearly established, at paragraph 18, that expenses “incurred” by the payer of support (including in order to terminate it) cannot be considered to have been “incurred” for the purpose of earning income and stated that the courts have never recognized any right to the deduction of these expenses.
In the result the appeal was dismissed.