Child maintenance question

MataNui

your case will be with the CMS. They have a calculator so you can both use to see what should be paid. They do encourage you to sort it out between yourselves.

If you cant agree (which i am pretty sure you wont be able to) then there will be a charge for setting up a case with them.
If they need to collect payments there will be an additional charge (but i dont think its to you).

Any calculation would include salary from the date you claim and if there are any dividends then you wont know for sure until the end of the tax year (unless you want to ask him).

There are a couple of big problems you have though:
What he is doing is perfectly legal and cant be seen as deliberately avoiding maintenance. His prime motivation is more likely tax efficiency.
So even if the company earns millions, if he only pays himself 10k per year then that all you are entitled to.

You really need to understand what the limited company and him being a director means. Otherwise you will end up with unrealistic ideas about what you can get. Any money the company earns is the companies money. Its not his and cant be used to pay his debts or used to assess his personal tax or CSA liabilities. So realistically its JUST what he chooses to pay himself as a salary. You can claim that his dividends are income and you will get awarded a proportion of them but if you do this you need to be careful.

Dividends are not guaranteed and will change. He may decide to not pay himself any next year meaning if you dispute any new payment plan he suggests then he could be entitled to claim it back from you at the next year end.

pmduk

If CMS have to collect and distribute the support payments there is a surcharge of 20% to the Paying Parent and the Receiving Payment has 4% deducted from the amount paid.

Chrispier

Do cms look at his savings in all this?

MataNui

Chrispier wrote: »

Do cms look at his savings in all this?

Yes, and No.
They would only take interest payed on savings into account not the lump sum. And remember this would only be personal savings in his name not and savings in the companies name so for the vast majority of people would be insignificant.

Also if he got wind of you trying this he could easily and legally divert all his savings to the company as a loan which he could then recover when his CMS liability ends.

WYSPECIAL

MataNui wrote: »

Yes, and No.
They would only take interest payed on savings into account not the lump sum.

Also the interest has to be at least £2500 before they will take it into account. At the current interest rates been paid that would be a lot of savings.

Chrispier

Not much chance of that then. Do they look into bank accounts?

DUTR

Chrispier wrote: »

Not much chance of that then. Do they look into bank accounts?

Yes and no, but you have to understand and appreciate, they don't treat the NRP like some sort of criminal or avoider. £2500 in interest is £208/month and to get that it's basically £1/per £1000 hence in your case the NRP would have to have £209k in personal savings.
Also, if your son is not currently at college and not due for child benefit, then there is no liability for CS, if he does not enrol in January, then you may well have to wait until September 2016 to lodge a claim, and even then, this may only last until the 19th birthday.

MataNui

Chrispier wrote: »

Not much chance of that then. Do they look into bank accounts?

Why would they do that? If the money is in a bank account its classed as savings so I dont understand why you are asking. You have already asked about savings and been told he would need over 200k saved for them to be interested.

Also as DUTR mentioned you dont actually qualify for any maintenance legally at the moment and when/if you ever do its only likely to be for a few months to a year (give or take).