First of all, sorry your in this position as it stinks.
It has been on the cards for a long time but now time has come up. We have been discussing what she wants out of the settlements and I never had any major issues with what she was demanding but lately she has been very agressive and everytime she has new thoughts from her web of advisors.
If you Ex is like mine she may be about to take you to the cleaners.
You also have a very difficult setup.
I would advise you to get advice ASAP.
Work out what yuo have overall all it all up value wise, house, jewellery, investments, property, the lot. Divide by a ratio 50:50 if serious spousal maintenance to be given. If kids younger your looking at something like 70:30 to her.
>Anyway here is the situation:
>>1. We come from India.
Has she filed for divorce?
If not as you are from India maybe file for divorce there?
They maybe more sympathetic to men.
>> 2. Been married for 13 years and have two kids.
How old are the kids. She will get the house and likely more than 50% as they are probably under 18. 70% : 30% to you something like that.
>> 3. Few Properties in India, some in joint name and some in our individual names. All bought and paid by me.
See post above re filing. if shes filed in this country it will *all* be in the pot. Does not matter whose name they are in.
You may argue about properties bought before in your own name before the marriage. But seriously the judges dont really care. Its all both of yours as far as they are concerned.
I came into a windfall during the proceedings after splitting and it was put in the pot.
>> 4. Own a house here, owned by me and paid by me.
She will get it on behalf of the kids as they are under 18.
>> 5. She was a house wife and has been working for last 2 years and earns about 1000 a month. Not much of a pension.
Get docs on it. You need to prove she can and will continue to work. And do it now before she is told to quit work. Your position should be "She can fend for herself and does not need maintenance as you own the house without mortgage?".
>> 5. I have been contracting for just over 2 years via my limited company and take out min salary plus dividends just before hitting the max tax.
It will all go in the pot. The judges don't understand these vehicles or at least mine did not. She took my day rate * 214 working days and took off the paye. That was it. No corp tax nothing taken into account. Be warned. Having the limited company and a good contract can be bad, very bad. I would suggest not renewing your contract and make it look like you are finding it hard to renew.
Keep rejection letters. Make it look like finding a contract is very, very difficult. You will need it.
>> 6. Finances apart, I want joint custody of the children with equal time with both parents. She agrees mostly but sometimes not.
Custody is nothing to do with finances. The court will be only be concerned with money and assets. Kids is a separate agreement or contact order. It will be v expensive to go to court if she denies you access. Try to get an agreement on paper and get her to sign with someone else witnessing if you can.
>>My questions are how the child benefits are calculated i.e. based on sal+dividends or the income of the business, which is about £110-120K per year?
Does CSA considers the funds in the business as well for child maintenance?
The child maintenance is based on your net earnings. So Sal & divvys. Although the CMS may only take the Sal into account. I would suggest though paying for your kids. You dont want your kids turning around in 5 years time saying your a sH&^. If looks like you are going to court, get the CMS involved. Get them to pick a child maintence figure. Do not allow the court to set it. They will do it on the basis on the lines below. You will end up over paying. And you cant get it reviewed for another year after the court order. If the CMS set the child maintenance before the court date, the court wont get involved in the figures for CM. Its more about protecting your assets at this stage. Pick your battles.
>>Whether the final divorce settlement considers the funds in the business.
Yes, its all game. They will take all your earnings as funds and capital in the account as an asset. Although if they take all your earnings as accessible they should not in theory touch the capital as is part of your income and would be double counting. That is the theory. However they did with me. I had 80k buffer in the bank and they split it too.
>>I must admit, I have never taken any advice from the solicitors as I have always believed in a fair deal but seems to be upping her ante all the time.
Take advice, Have a representation going into court, in form of a solicitor or barrister. Look at fixed fee barrister if you want to do a lot of the work on your own. Will save the solitors fees.
Its expensive. We spent £120k fighting each other. Just because she could not accept anything. It was all about the fight.
Do all you can to agree outside court. Save yourself the agro. Make her a serious offer with from fixed term maintenance topup until kids 18 or so.
Do whatever you have to get a deal with a Section 25 clean break. Make that your target. Even if it hurts in the meantime. You will be thankful later.
You have property.
Maybe give her the house for the 'kids' sake.
Maintenance to bring her up towards what she need so carry on until kids 18. so whats needed -£12k. So she needs £30k a year, give her £18k
Set it all out on paper. Get solicitor to go over it and make it as a genuine offer, not "nonprejudicial" That way a judge will see in court you were trying to be fair.
Make a serious offer, keep out of courts. You can/will be shafted if you dont.
If you do get into court you need to fight like hell. You will need to seriously up the aunty on your position. I thought playing fair was enough.
WRONG. I was screwed for playing fair. Don't get caught out like me and lots of others. I now work to pay by order of the court.
Do the work now and save your self heartache and financial ruin.
HTH.
Fellow contractor/cash cow
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