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Hi all. My teenage son has residency with my partner and I. For the year he lived with his mother I paid her maintenance of £38 per week (this was the amount she requested) plus I bought all his clothing, paid for school trips, paid for his sports and hobbies etc etc. On top of this, when we separated, as my son was going to be living with her, I gave her £75k so she could be mortgage free, meaning my mortgage is now crippling.
A year later our son was taken from her care. I didn't ask for any maintenance for a long time, despite her going on lots of holidays, buying sporty cars etc. Eventually I asked for a contribution but all she would pay is £10 per week.
I have accepted this for the last 4 years as I have no energy to left to fight her, but now our son is a teenager and he costs a fortune, I feel she should be paying more.
The problem is, she's self employed and isn't honest about her income so she doesn't have to pay tax, and has moved 200 miles away. She is hardly seeing our son, whereas before she saw him up to 8 overnights per month, depending on if he wanted to go.
As it seems to be worked out on how much time he is with each parent, if I go to the CMS she will 100% say she still has him up to 8 nights per month (as per the court order) and I seem to have no way of proving she is actually rarely seeing him.
Any ideas? Or will they use common sense?!
hi,
Usually they like to accept court orders as evidence. knowing them, they will probably tell you to apply to court again to get an updated order if the shared care nights have changed and is being disputed. I would be surprised if she is not paying any tax. must be completing self-assessments.
So if you open a CMS case they should see this information, but perhaps you should not expect much in payment if she is not disclosing full income. they have processes for dealing with people that are not disclosing income, but it's very long-winded and depends how much patience you have with them.
@bill337 thanks for this, I kind of assumed from the 8 month battle to get the child benefit changed over that it wouldn't be straight forward. She lied through her teeth to stop me getting it saying our son was still with her. Anything to make my life difficult. It was placed on hold until I could prove my son is permanently resident with me but it came to me in the end.
No point trying to update the court order as she would never admit she's not seeing him as it would make her look bad.
As for her income, she has 7 lodgers and sleeps in the summerhouse at the end of the garden. Also does cash in hand work. Easy to manipulate the books. I've been told she's been reported by some disgruntled ex lodgers but nothing seems to have happened.
you could report her to inland revenue, if she has to pay proper tax, then there is a record of her income.
@actd hi. She's been reported several times but nothing seems to happen. I know the council made contact as she should have an HMO licence, but she says people staying with her are non paying friends so they can't prove it either way.
You know how some people get away with murder, but if you slipped up just once.......
any chance you can find where she advertises vacancies? That would give the council (and then HMCRS) something to go on.
@actdh
She keeps an advert in a shop window in town and declares renting out one room as you can earn up to £7500 tax free per year with the government's rent a room scheme. She would say it's that room as it says nowhere there's more than one room. She actually earns about £35k -£40k per year just from the lodgers.
Might still be worth reporting to Inland Revenue - they aren't stupid about these things, and if she's spending beyond her income levels, they are going to want to know how. That's £6k worth of tax they are missing out on.
I reported her a couple of years ago but nothing happened, and I know someone else has too. I guess I could try again. I know she's just bought a £5k hot tub, although I suspect she'll say her husband (who doesn't work) paid for it as that's what she usually says and it seems no more questions asked.
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