Hi all, looking for some advice.
I had a one night stand almost 11 years ago and the girl fell pregnant, fast forward a decade and she has tracked me down. The DNA test has confirmed I am the father, they want nothing to do with me, but have put a CMS claim in.
I am paid fairly well and I am in a lucky position that I have the ability to take some of my income to dividends, but I was intending on taking £50k salary and paying the amount based on this which I feel is reasonable.
My question is, if I take the rest of my income as dividends and declare to HMRC in my self assessment, do I NEED to declare this to CMS? Will they only look into this if the mother asks for it? Does anyone have experience of this with someone they were never with therefore how likely are they to ask for the unearned income variation?
Thanks in advance.
hi, generally CMS do not see your dividends when they review your income each year. but it's good practice to declare them, because if they become aware of it, you will get stung by backdated payments. i always declared dividends to them when I had LTD a few years ago.
@bill337 thanks Bill, so if declared will these be taken into account for the calculation or will they only take them into account if the mother asks for a unearned income assessment?
@pug2471 yes if you declare it then they apply it to calculations, and also if ex is aware of it and seeks variation. CMS have been talking about automatically including these into calculations, but don't think that's happened yet.