CSA Help please!!!

Ayla010

My partner has never missed a payment and has all letters confirming monthly amounts. He is self employed and his accountant deals wit. It for him, but this year we have received a letter from the CSA asking for 20 times his normal payments and stating he has arrears. Can anyone offer any advice as we are at our wits end.

DUTR

The case is with your partner not the accountant, 20 times the amount seems shocking but £5/week isn't always a fair contribution for someone earning.
The assesment is based on net earnings, so perhaps your partner has failed to keep tabs on any correspondance from the csa?

MataNui

Self employment and a CSA liability never work well together. Its worse than tax credits and self employment. You think you had a good year then the CSA come along and want it all backdated plus more for the future. Then you have a bad year and its tough sh*t. They dont care.

Its 100% worth trading via a limited company if there is a CSA liability. If the turnover is big then you will save yourself lots of money but even if its not and the additional accountancy fees barely cover the savings its worth it just for the peace of mind.

EDIT:
The variation and divs may only apply to the earlier schemes. Some else may correct that.

Given your current situation i would be contacting my accountant now and get that company set up. CSA liability will be based on salary (unless the pwc asks for a variation if divs are taken which in most cases is unlikely) so the payments will be static and easier to plan for.

justontime

Your partner needs to speak to CSA to find out why the assessment has changed significantly. It could be that they have found 'arrears' (that happened to my husband, he had paperwork showing everything was up to date but suddenly they 'found' almost £17000 arrears - with help from our MP we eventually proved that he didn't owe anything, they had to pay an overpayment back to him!). Or perhaps there has been a variation, if so your partner should have had paperwork. Your partner needs to act promptly to question this, if he isn't very knowledgeable about CSA matters perhaps NACSA could help him, or if you can't get a sensible explation from CSA ask your MP for help, ours was a great help and CSA seem to respond more quickly when an MP is involved.

The advice about a limited company is good as it will give a more settled CSA assessment but don't use it as a means to avoid paying a fair amount to support the children. I hope you get it sorted out soon.