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Hi All,
After trawling through various threads I cant seem to find the answer im looking for so hopefully someone can help me lol.
If its been asked before apologies.
After having a private agreement with my ex for years she has now decided to go through the CMS immediately after I got married.
With no notification she has gone awol deleted all her social media accounts changed her numbers and as my daughter was due to start secondary school I have no idea where she is living and what they are doing.
When I have spoken to the CMS about this they have just told me its not for them to discuss I need to go through the courts.
I have no issue paying for my daughter and have done with no issues for x amount of years with no expense sparred, i even contributed towards the school holiday clubs every year, school uniform etc etc and now for the only reason I can think she believes shes entitled to my wifes salary also she has now done this to us. I even save X amount of money for my daughter into a savings account for when she turns 18 or goes into further education to help her out.
My issue is the CMS dont take into account this savings account for my daughter and take everything I earn as gross.
Currently I have a company car with fuel card and when the CMS have contacted me this has obviously inflated my earnings.
My though trail on this now is to ditch the car and salary sacrifice things like my yearly bonus instead of putting money into a savings account for daughter every month i can sacrifice it to reduce my earnings along with an increase in my pension contributions as im one of the late contributors to pension life. However if I salary sacrifice ive been informed by my employer i can sacrifice upto 100% of my monthly earning if I wanted to but this cannot exceed £40k a year.
As my case started late this year and my review is next year if I sacrificed my salary now to reduce it by 25% before the next tax year can i ask for a review next may taking into account the latest gross income HMRC have on me ? The other question is are monthly payments from my employer taken into account or is it just he total YTD figure.
Apologies for the multiple questions within this its just a minefield at the moment and my head is bouncing all around as to how my ex could just disappear with my daughter for no reason and then im forced to pay the increase just because she can. Ive had a good relationship with my ex until i married and then boom you just couldnt make it up.
Thanks for any advice
hi,
from experience, CMS does not care what arrangement you have with ex outside of their system. if one of you rings CMS to make a claim, then thats it. they will kick start the claim and go check with HMRC to check your tax records. if you joined CMS in march, then they will review your income in march the next year. but as soon as you notice your income increases or drops by 25% or more, you just ring them up to tell them, and dont have to wait for the annual review. in their paperwork they state that its an offence to not tell them right away then your income increases. and you also must tell them if your address changes.
i would say ditch the savings account and just focus on making payments through CMS. and be wary of bonuses and overtime :p
if you go through courts and get arrangements to see your child, CMS will give you reductions based on the number of nights you spend with your child per week/year etc.
I would agree with ditching the savings - I stress I am not qualified here, so taking independant financial advice is recommended, but if, instead of putting the money into a savings account, you salary sacrifice it into a pension, as well as reducing your CMS liability, you will get tax and NI benefits, as well as being able to draw 25% of the pension amount tax free when you are 55.
Thankyou for the advice, i contacted the CMS and they were very helpful and informative on how and what I must do.
As I had already decide on giving my car and fuel card up prior to my post this i have calculated what my new salry would be from jan 1st. I only had to advise them what my new gross salary would be and they advised me to ring back when i have 2 months worth of payments showing on the HMRC website and they would review my case then.
Just by taking my car, fuel card and expenses out of the equation along with diverting the current savings account into my pension my salary drops enough to trigger the 25% figure.
After discussing with my employer they are now giving me a pool car and a company credit card so I no longer claim expenses or have a car showing on my gross i just take my own car to and from work.
Its a shame I've had to resort to this and miss out on my daughter coming over, I'm just hoping this triggers a response from my ex as her money will drop back down to what i was originally paying when i was seeing my daughter, if she reappears with her and I get to see her then my payments will come down also so the ex loses out so Karma wins as they say.
Its a sorry state when a child is used as a weapon to gain more money from someone for no reason, i genuinely didn't realise how lucky I had it until this all started.
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