Is Savings Interest Calculated as Income

Yes that will be the child maintenance Service. The CMS carries out a basic calculation ­base­d on the latest tax return and the recipient may apply for a variation on the grounds that the paying parent has additional income not taken into account.

Under the 2012 rules a variation may be considered when the non resident parent has certain types of taxable unearned income (i.e. income that has not been counted in gross weekly income) of £2.5k or more a year.

There are no grounds for a variation on the basis of the value of an asset themselves if they do not provide an income. Any taxable income derived from the use of property or land counts as additional income, but the capital value of the property or land is ignored. Any taxable income from savings and investments counts as unearned income. However certain types of savings or investments (e.g. ISAs) are exempt from tax and therefore disregarded.

The CMS ­base­ variation decisions on the actual unearned income figures rather than a notional percentage which was/is used by the CSA.