Hey All
My partner agreed (mainly through guilt at ending his marriage and leaving behind a 2 year old with the Ex) to pay a rather large amount each month to his Ex for Child Maintenance and has stuck to his word every single month since. That was 4 years ago now.
Obv with the cost of living and considerable long distance petrol costs back and forth to pick up his daughter each fortnight... it would be good to understand our options to revise the amount... ideally without causing the implosion anticipated from the Ex who enjoys 3 holidays a year, cosmetic surgery, a new car and a £2000 treadmill... Despite earning quite a low salary so we can only assume it is funded by her wealthy family or from the amount he is paying for his daughter each month.
My partner was keen to go Self Employed - but to keep things simple I suggested that I set up a new company and employ him as PAYE employee.. thus he will have payslips to prove his income has dropped rather than the more complicated Self Employment situation (as we would have to wait until after April next year for the drop in income to show on his Self Assessment).
Is it legally Ok for me to set up a limited company and to employ him and pay him his current salary through the books as a PAYE employee?
He isn't looking to dodge or side step his obligations in anyway shape or form... Just wants a fairer agreement
My other thought was - that he could then open a case with the CMS on himself and show them his payslips as a PAYE employee (with me as the employer)... which could be used to prove to his Ex he is over paying...
Even if he decides to continue paying the higher amount each month - She would be able to see that he is being more than fair and might stop playing games.
What do people think?
Thanks
Hi,
Has your partner informed CMS about his travel costs to pick up and drop kids?
If it's £10 a week or more then he can claim special expenses. He can also claim if he supports other children.
More info about expenses:
https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/other-financial-commitments-child-maintenance-cases#:~:text=These%20are%20called%2 0'special%20expenses,or%20a%20long%2Dterm%20illness
With self employed and LTD company, I recommend you join this support group for paying parents:
https://facebook.com/groups/239699060076601/
@bill337 Thank you.. The CMS are not currently involved - but we are pre-empting their involvement in the future (either pro-actively by my partner or out of malice by his ex). Do you have any experience in our query or insights you can share? Thank you!
@amiastepmumnow I am no expert but did have a Limited company. It seems a strange way to handle it. When I first went Limited company(self employed) i paid myself the tax free allowance(now £12k+) and so this triggered immediately the under 25% differential and a reassessment. So I was assessed very low. I do not think you would need to wait until April. I did inform them of additional dividends but they did not catch up with them till end of year, for the year following.
Setting up a Limited company yourself and employing your partner does seem as gaming it, even though I expect(but cannot be sure) that CMS does not care who owns the company, they just see the pay slips and the employer and thats it - assessed accordingly.
My main advice is to not try to make everything so low that it does not make sense to anyone. The ex will not be happy if being awarded next to nothing and will almost certainly trigger complaints, reassements and digging into things that you may not be comfortable with. If you were taken to tribunal perhps who owns the company may be investigated, if the CM is very low......
@hrabbit Thank you so much for your valuable advice! And no... our intention is not to make the payments significantly lower... in fact.. my partner is reluctant to make much change if any - other than to enable him to pay his other personal bills more easily... as any impact on the maintenance will impact his daughters life and the last thing he wants is for her life to change... Hence our procrastination over this whole sticky subject in the first place! It's so hard for separated Dads isn't it.
Thank you again!