self-employed and CSA

My husband is self-employed. This means that by the time his accountant has worked on his income, it looks like about half what he really earns.

At the moment he makes voluntary child support payments. They weren't worked out that way, but they are about what the CSA would make him pay on the basis of his declared income after tax.

However, on his form E he is claiming income needs of considerably more than this. He has also included bank statements that show considerably more coming in, and it's clear from these that he is indeed meeting his declared income needs without going into debt or even into savings.

Can I send this to the CSA as evidence of his real earnings? If I were successful I would get about half as much again as I am getting now.

Best wishes,
Sadie

Sadie

There is a mechanism for providing the CSA with evidence that income is higher than declared ... I filled in forms and provided details of my ex's (pension) income using paperwork from the divorce proceedings. I would say that you would be well within your rights to do the same. It is probably worth having a chat with someone from the CSA to see if this is evidence they would accept from you - or if they would investigate based on what you tell them - without seeing the actual paperwork.

Is he a sole trader or does he have a limited company?

Hadenoughnow

Thanks, this is very useful.

He is a sole trader.

I might look into this once the Ancillary Relief case is over as I think establishing that his actual income is greater than it appears may well be part of my case.

I've never actually gone to CSA as it looked as though it wouldn't be worth it, but I am thinking again now.

Sadie

Sadie

Hopefully your questionnaire will winkle out the truth about what is really going on regarding his income. You can ask about payments in and out of the account ... stick to those that are more than say £150 ... Even if he does not answer your questions adequately you can raise doubts about his truthfulness and build a picture of the true situation.
Does he have a separate business bank account? Have you had details of this? I run a limited company - and I was required to provide all business bank statements and company accounts for months leading up to the final hearing. I see no reason why he should not be asked for his business accounts if he has one or more ..

Hadenoughnow

Hey Sadie,
the CSA took all the Ancillary Relief information from me without question and agreed it showed he was earning more than he declared to them. However, things took a different turn and it has never been investigated - for reasons of 'condfidentiality' it has never been explained to me why except to say 'that avenue is not open to us now'. Given that I know a) my ex hadn't paid Corporation Tax for at least 3 years; b) he hasn't filed accounts with Companies House (he's Ltd.) for the same period and c) he hasn't had any contact with the CSA for 13 months now (that much they would tell me), I can only assume either the HMRC or Companies House have declared first dibs on him! I guess I'll never know...

What I wanted to say is just be aware that the CSA is possibly the slowest operating organisation I have ever had the misfortune to deal with and they're not good at understanding self-employment. They may well assess your ex for more money than he's giving you now but if he doesn't want to pay it, and doesn't pay it, you'll get nothing for months and months and months....years.....decades. I applied in March 09 and have received one payment in all this time and it is only now that they are commencing legal action. And we know how slow the legal system is.

My suggestion would be if you can get your ex to admit to his additional income/get it confirmed in court, you should do your best to negoiate an increased maintenance amount with him with the 'threat' of going to the CSA if he doesn't agree. Indeed, get it written into the Consent Order so you're 'safe' for a year that way. If you go to the CSA prior to it going to court, the courts won't have anything to do with it so keep that in mind. I would also suggest that if you're managing with what he provides now, forget the principal of the matter (and I know how frustrating it is that they get away with providing so little or nothign at all) and accept things as they are. Unless you're up for a fight for the next 20 years, in which case, go ahead and contact the CSA!

Thanks to you both for your comments.

Regarding his accounts: he doesn't have a separate business account. Everything goes into his cheque account and comes out of there - although I suppose strictly he is a sole trader actually it is payments for freelance work, against which he claims a lot of expenses, some of which are dubious, to say the least. When I got his last form E I was able to go through his cheque account and work out more or less what was income payments and also to see that he's not getting into debt despite expenditure well in excess of his declared net income. I could also see periods when he took no money out of his account at all, so presumably was living on cash payments. I also had copies of his accounts (not up to date, but they will have to be when we go to court) so I can see, and challenge, what his accountant is claiming as expenses.

I agree that I shouldn't go to the CSA unless I have to. I am hoping that armed with this information I can threaten it as part of the negotiations as he is clearly getting away with paying a lot less than he should be. I can manage on what I have, but only just, and it means that the children's lifestyle is nothing like as comfortable as his is, which seems completely unfair

Establishing that he really earns more than he is declaring is particularly important for the Ancillary Relief case, as on the basis of his declared earnings, I earn more than he does, and so may lose out in the wider financial negotiations. But if there is also a child maintenance spin-off, then that would be really good!

Best wishes,
Sadie