I am new to this but have a specific concern over how I am going to be assessed in the future. I have just moved from 'permanent' employment to operating as a Director of a Ltd Co and as a result my income (once I start taking money from the business - salary/shares/drawings etc) will increase significantly but will NOT be consistent as contracts may come and go. However, I have a pension being paid from my previous employer which I accept is an income and should be assessed for a %age to be paid to my children via their Mother. I have researched the www, in particular the gov.uk and CSA websites, but nothing is conclusive. Can anyone advise exactly how I will be assessed in the future.
Regards
Hi there,
One thing you could do is to contact the "Child Maintenance Options people.
They are very good and helpful.
You find them under www.cmoptions.org
Take care
Kirsten
Hin There,
Your liability will be worked out in a similar way to if you were a sole trader, the CSA/CMS will take an average of 1 quarters income and work out your payments from that, then they will ask you to re submit from time to time to ensure that you are paying the correct amount, you can also ask them to re assess at any time if your wage chages.
GTTS
GTTS,
many thanks. You used the word 'income'. Do you mean my personal income, ie a salary, the business income (profit) or possibly both?
M
I think it's personal income - your accountant should be able to provide you with a statement for the CMS, but you need to make sure that you don't declare this as unreasonably low otherwise your ex may go for a variation on the basis of diversion of income.
Also, you mention a previous employer paying you a pension - do you need this money at the moment? If not, and it's not already being paid, you might be able to defer the pension until a later date (take some qualified pension advice though, as I'm not qualified in any way for this), or if it is being paid, then pay it into another pension scheme for later use.
Hello Mapartridge
If you have a family-based arrangement in place you may wish to try to discuss and negotiate with the other parent regarding how your maintenance payments will be calculated. Family-based arrangements are not legally enforceable and there are no strict rules or formulas to stick to when calculating child maintenance. Therefore, parents can decide the terms of their agreement to suit their current circumstances.
The Child Maintenance Options website has a useful tools and guides section that you and the other parent may find helpful when trying to negotiate a family-based arrangement. This can be found at http://www.cmoptions.org.
If you have a case via the Government’s statutory scheme you may wish to contact them directly to inform them of your change in circumstances. You will find their details on any letters they have sent you or on Gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/child-maintenance.
The Child Maintenance Service is the new Government’s statutory scheme and they use the amount of gross income given to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) by a paying parent, their employer or their accountant to work out the average amount of earnings, or, where the paying parent is self-employed, their taxable profits. For every case, the gross income figure will be reviewed each year in order to take account of newer income information given to HMRC.
If during the year earnings from employment change temporarily from week to week due to overtime or bonuses, this usually would not make a difference to the amount a paying parent must pay in the 2012 scheme. But if there is a more permanent change to current income and this differs from this by 25% or more from the income figure previously used then the paying parent can apply to have a temporary new calculation put in place. They will need to provide evidence for this but, if successful, the new calculation will usually apply at least up until the next Annual Review. I have included a link on how the Child Maintenance Service calculates child maintenance that you may find useful, https://www.gov.uk/how-child-maintenance-is-worked-out/how-the-child-maintenance-service-works-out-child-maintenance.
If you have a Consent Order/Minute of Agreement in place you may wish to see what is stipulated within your agreement regarding your payments and any change in circumstances you have had. Alternatively, you may wish to seek legal advice on this.
For more information on the different ways to set up child maintenance, you can visit the Child Maintenance Options website.
The DWP have a sorting out separation web-app that you may find useful. It offers help and support to separating and separated families. The link is: www.dad.info/divorce-and-separation/sorting-out-separation.
Regards
William
I will be certainly watching this and pitching in with my experience on it. I am in the same boat but have always been a director.
What is NOT clear to me is why they will not take my company account statements and need a full interim accounts making up in order to know my income.
Due to an accident I had a really bad year and invoiced nothing for 4.5 months almost ruining the company. There is just enough in there to pay the outstanding corp tax and bills due. So I lived off savings and at the time was doing a family based arrangement of 400 per month which I felt was high and indeed struggled to maintain that level. For the last 2 months of the non invoicing and no wage drawing I had to drop payments to 200 per month. This is what set my parter off to go on the collect and pay.
in fact the amount they decided originally was 88 odd per week so she had been overpaid every month.
I am now asking them to review these payments as they are now
a) ignoring that I made ANY payments though now they are reviewing or say they are since I provided my personal account details in screen grabs
b) asking for back fees in regard to debt collection costs for the missing 400 pounds (at this stage a family arrangement is not actually a legal contract at this point)
My main question is what do I ask my accountant for as its going to cost and I don't want to get it wrong and have to do it again (why can I not just show them my salary ? alongside the accounts).
Is it wise to show them accounts am I making things worse ?
Of course this is the start of things getting bad. When I start to refuse to pay their 'costs' in collection of back dated family arrangement missing money of 400 etc..which I would still struggle to find on top of the normal monthly what will happen.
Am I best off getting legal protection as they seem to bend the legal side of things. I AM REALLY NOT CONVINCED BY THE PEOPLE AT THE OTHER END OF THE CMS PHONE LINE...
They do not have a good history of returning money they took incorrectly.
in summary - My main question is what do I ask my accountant for ? As it stands this year will be much less than 25% change in my income and the business income also.
I'm afraid I don't know the answer to this, hopefully someone will be along with more information.....