Child maintenance/non-tax paying father.

[catherinea1971]

Hi looking for any words of wisdom/advice.
Bit of background ex and I divorced in 2005 he remained living/working abroad I moved back to uk with dd.
Maintenance was worked out eventually and ex paid less than the agreed amount sporadically. After a few years of sporadic payments I sought the help of CSA. They eventually managed to calculate his wages after having to go directly to his work payroll and I started receiving regular payments.
At the end of last year CSA did a re-assessment of ex's wages, the result was this.....
They are legally permitted to do an assessment as the company he works abroad for is a UK based company and his wages are paid into a UK bank account. They are however unable to make any calculation of wages that have not been taxed.....he does not pay any tax as he is not in the country!!! Therefore they cannot collect anything for my dd!!
I have appealed this and they have said in writing that it seems to be an unfair loophole that they are looking into.
It also means that all previous payments made to me via CSA were in fact unlawful and I should not have received them.
Ex has not bothered to pay anything towards our daughter since CSA stopped taking payments directly from his wages, I therefore have received nothing since December of last year.
Any thoughts, help or advice would be much appreciated:)

[mumblechum1]

Do you have a consent order within the divorce proceedings? If so you will probably have agreed to make no further claims against him, but if not then you may be able to apply for spousal maintenance so in a roundabout way getting some mtce from him that way.

[Gonzo33]

Without sounding stupid. If he works for a UK company and gets paid into a UK account why is he not paying Income Tax and NI? My husband works abroad and he pays UK Tax and NI and his CSA is deducted at source.

[catherinea1971]

Thanks for the replies..
Mumblechum, I have re-married so cannot try for that.....

Gonzo, he works in the Middle East and is in the UK less than 12 weeks per year, and is therefore not liable to pay UK income tax, he can pay NI contributions if he wants though..... When I was receiving money via CSA it was on a deduction of earnings order..

[Collaborate]

OP you mayhave to apply for a drparture direction / variation but they should eventually take it into account. Apply pronto.

[catherinea1971]

Collaborate, how do I apply for it please?

[Collaborate]

Sorry babyB but that's not right. I had a case recently where the client went to china for a few years and checking the rules but for the fact that his employer wasn't UK based they could have retained jurisdiction. Can't quote you chapter and verse (I'm on holiday - what a sad git am I) but trust me on this one.
OP ring the CSA and they'll send you the necessary form to fill in.

[Gonzo33]

Babyb my husband is a crown employee, and we have been living and working abroad for the last 2 years (nearly 3). The CSA have been deducting at source for his son in UK.

Plus on the reverse of that, I am resident with my husband and have a child from a previous marriage and my exh also has to pay even though I am not normally resident in UK at this time because of my husbands job. How does that work then?

[Collaborate]

The tentacles of the CSA are long.

[catherinea1971]

www.csa.gov.uk/en/setup/parents-living-abroad.asp

[catherinea1971]

This is the rule by which the CSA started taking payments from my ex.... They have since quoted to me that although they CAN do an assessment on his earnings, they CANNOT make a calculation from his wages as he is a none tax payer, I have the exact ref they are using, will dig it out and post it, kids playing up right now though.....

[Collaborate]

That is the old s44. The up to date one can be found here

www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/o-0301.pdf

OP do let me have the reference they quote. There are lots of instances where income is ignored initially the picked up again on a departure/variation.

[catherinea1971]

Ok, here goes, I will quote from the statement they have issued for tribunal...

'I submit that in order for a maintenance calculation to be made a non-resident parent's net weekly income must be calculated in accordance with paragraph 3 of schedule 1 of the Child support (Maintenance calculation and special cases) regulations 2000. Schedule 1 prescribes that the net weekly income of the non-resident parent shall be determined with reference to paragraph 4 less deductions detailed in paragraph 5. Paragraph 5(2) (a) prescribes that income tax deduction amounts shall be (the) amounts actually deducted.
In this case Mr gross income does not include any amounts chargeable to UK tax or NI contributions, he does not meet the definition of an employed earner, therefore it is not possible to calculate a net income in accordance with child support legislation. Nor is it possible to estimate the deductions of UK tax or NI, if none are being paid'...

I hope that makes sense to you as it seems idiotic to me, when I first claimed and mentioned that he didn't pay tax, they said it was no problem that they just worked out what tax he would normally have to pay and based their calculations on that.......

[Collaborate]

OP I think that just relates to the initial assessment. Go for the departure/variation.

[Collaborate]

Oh and they shouldn't take off what tax he would have paid had he been resident.

[catherinea1971]

No they actually added the tax on then did their calculations so the net figure they arrived at was his actual tax free wage.

[mumblechum1]

Collaborate, wtf are you doing answering threads when:

a) You're on holiday

b) It's v v early and you're on holiday

Hope you're having a nice time, but, you know, shouldn't you be on the beach??

[Collaborate]

Ha. It's an hour later here, and there's no beach in Madrid. Too hot to lie in.

[catherinea1971]

I, just thought I would update. Been to the appeal hearing today against the decision made by the CSA, the judge has overruled the decision made by the CSA and in my favour. I now just have to wait for the CSA to do an updated calculation. :)