[Solved] Bonuses included in net income for calculation?

Interesting....I am just worried that they would look into the P60 because the bonuses have been paid every year since I have been with the company. So I am keeping my ex sweet by just sticking to our private arrangement, I am far better off that way. I pay her a huge sum as it is but if we were to go through the CMS I would be far worse off, unless I go part-time and pump 25% of my pay into my pension. Also that 20% charge for a payment is a joke...that would cost me probably around £250 alone each month! ridiculous!

Try and stick to your private agreement, if not my advice would be pump 25% into your pension

The 20% charge is only if you default payment, you would be on direct pay with no charges so don't worry about that

I would add a word of caution on the 25% into pension - I believe the CSA introduced rules a while back about using the pension to avoid or reduce paying maintenance - if they think that's the only reason you are doing it, then they may be able to disregard it. Even before these rules were introduced, my ex tried to avoid paying maintenance by putting the whole of her income into pension (and I do mean 100%) - at tribunal, even though those rules weren't there at the time, they disregarded to whole of her contributions with regards to maintenance. If she had been reasonable, and only put 10 or 15% into pension, I wouldn't even have bothered going to tribunal, and I'm sure they would have accepted her payment if I had - it's a matter of what is reasonable, and they will base that on a number of factors, such as age, whether the pension contribution would give you a lifestyle on retirement in excess of the one you have at the moment.

I'm not saying don't do it, just be careful how you do - of course if you can get independent financial advice showing that you need to be putting that amount away, that will help your argument.

100% that's just taking the mick!!!

I did come across something the other week about how much was reasonable and it was 40%

Yeh 100% is a bit of a p*ss take...20-30% is more reasonable I think. Anyhow...for now things are good but sometimes it does feel like a sword is hanging above my head!

Hi Brokedad2

Thank you for your post. I am William the Child Maintenance Options consultant. I will try and provide some information that may help answer your query.

Huxley is correct in stating that the Child Support Agency (CSA) are no longer accepting new child maintenance applications. These are now being managed by the Child Maintenance Service.

The Child Maintenance Service 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, 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. You can find more information on how the Child Maintenance Service works out child maintenance on Gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/how-child-maintenance-is-worked-out/how-the-child-maintenance-service-works-out-child-maintenance.

However, you have mentioned that you would prefer to keep your family-based arrangement in place. Many parent find that family-based arrangements are the most flexible and amicable way of maintaining an arrangement. There are also no strict rules to stick to. Therefore, you and your ex-partner have the freedom to decide the terms of your own arrangement.

A family-based arrangement can include money and other kinds of support, such as you directly paying for things that your child or children may need. Family-based arrangements are not legally-binding, however, many parents prefer them because of their flexibility and ease of which they can be reviewed (such as if you or your ex-partner’s circumstances change). You can find more information on family-based arrangements on our website at http://www.cmoptions.org/en/family/index.asp.

We have a range of tools and guides on our website that can help keep your family-based arrangement amicable ( http://www.cmoptions.org/en/toolbox/index.asp). We have a discussion guide that you can use to help plan your conversations around child maintenance. We also have a family-based arrangement form that is not a legally-binding document, but if used to write down what both you and your ex-partner have agreed, it can help to formalise your arrangement.

To give you an indication of how much child maintenance that may be calculated if you were to use the Child Maintenance Service, we have an online calculator on our website at http://www.cmoptions.org/en/calculator/. Some parents use the figure provided when renegotiating child maintenance for their family-based arrangement.

For more information on the ways to set up child maintenance, please visit our website at http://www.cmoptions.org. Alternatively, you can call us free on 0800 988 0988 between 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday or 9am and 4pm on a Saturday. We 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

My partners ex decided she would go through the CSA to get more off him....and she got less 🙂
They were very very helpful to him once he explained the situation, how much he had been paying her whilst he was deployed(armed forces) but now he was home and wanting to have the children more he thought a proper fair agreement should be reached. He was still offering to pay more than the 'going rate'.
They felt this was greed and so told him to pay what they said and no more. When he left the forces they then advised him to stop paying as he was no longer receiving a wage and she was receiving many benefits. Then when he started his new job not long after they advised again to not pay anything until the monthly wage was certain in its amount. Then pay her any due funds at £5-£10 per week.

Explain things in a calm and dignified manner and hope you get a good member of staff who hasnt had a bad day....

If you've got a name for that CSA officer, write in and compliment - we need the good ones to be promoted/commended.