Contracting and CSA

[h8mmer]

Decrease your exposure by increasing expenses and adding directors. Contracting is quite nice for making life difficult for them, especially if you can take a month off here and there.
As it stands my assessment is on-going, so I'm not entirely sure if they are going to take dividends into account or not. Should know for certain within the next week.

Depends on your ex, the CSA person on the telephone will ask her "do you want to take his divis into account?" - can't see anyone saying no.
Also, playing games with your income to artificially make it low will just result in your ex being advised to lodge an appeal regarding the the amount they have been told they will get. Normally the CSA will stick to their assessment and then your ex has the right to take you to a tribunal anyway - everything is geared towards giving the PWC all the power not you.

Its the tribunal which have the powers to make you declare everything from your business & personal accounts (which she gets copys of btw) and will rule an almost arbitrary amount to pay - they bring "human rationale" into the equation following their own guidelines (which make very little sense imo).
So if they think you are artificially bumping up your expenses they can say that is income diversion and assess you accordingly.

I know its not likely, if she's already taken you to the CSA, but the best bet is to come to a personal agreement to pay her wo any CSA interference - even if you end up paying a little more than you should its worth it to get these monkeys off your back - they really are soul sucking leeches who can, and probably will, make your life a living hell if you allow them to.

[hydraulicwave]

I'm dealing with this at the moment as well.
CSA do ask for dividend income if self employed.
If the company has just begun trading and you don't have a SA tax return they will ask for projections in the form of cash flow, profit/loss etc. It's likely that they will accept a salary figure that you assign yourself to base the calculation on, but the case will be reviewed exactly a year from the opening date and every year thereafter. So, If you've been declaring dividends this will be there for them to see on your SA tax return.
Decrease your exposure by increasing expenses and adding directors. Contracting is quite nice for making life difficult for them, especially if you can take a month off here and there.
As it stands my assessment is on-going, so I'm not entirely sure if they are going to take dividends into account or not. Should know for certain within the next week.

[MPwannadecentincome]

I didn't get very far with CSA on this.

Having only setup Ltd Co in August just after leaving Former Marital Home I battled with them to understand that I only had a 6 month contract then would have to find another. Verbally they told me they would take 6 months daily rate and deduct tax and spread over 12 months. They lied to me, what actually happened is that they took my previous year's HMRC tax figures (I hadn't done a tax return at that time) and calculated the maintenance from that. With 3 kids I had to pay 25% net of tax (I didn't pay any pension), can't remember if it was net of NI or not. I then appealed that the amount was too high compared to the contract earnings having already been benched for 3 months and that I was paying the mortgage on the Former Marital Home. They allowed a small reduction for the mortgage but it was still higher than the contract dividends net of taxes allowing for bench time. In the end I just paid 25% of net divi income from Ltd Co and ex wife didn't complain that it was less than what CSA said though she did complain that I was leaving money in the Ltd Co.

Then the contract was killed after 3 months, a month after that I claimed JSA and CSA then wrote to me saying I only had to pay £7 per week from JSA. Another gig came up in Feb - again only for 3 months and I CSA wrote again telling me how much to pay based on last year's HMRC figures. That gig just ended after Easter and I signed on for JSA straight away, not heard from CSA yet but I anticipate they will respond when my tax return is filed which will show having been 6 months on the bench my income was much lower so I had actually paid the right amount of child maintenance.

[stek]

But you're not self-employed...

[wside]

Hi wside. Did you get answers on this??? I am in a similar situation and would like some advise on this... If not, can anyone help on this.

Hi - I'm still not really any further forward tbh! i did read something on CSA website that states if you are self employed and cant prove your earnings through not fault of our own (which you cant til get annual accounts) then the most they can take off you is £30 a week unti they can reassess. What i cant seem to find out is what happens if they get a hold of annual accounts and if you are penalised. I/m not trying to avoid paying it just want to know the best way to tackle it!

good luck and let me know if you find anything out!

[wside]

How you manage question 1 is up to you, for questions 2 & 3:

2. Most of the letters I have seen just ask for details of salary and tax/NI paid however it is my understanding that you are obligated to inform them of your dividend income.

3. From what I have seen the payments are reassessed from time to time however I couldn't tell you what the intervals for this are. I have only ever seen the letters sent to the employers, so I am not sure how they go about gathering information other than that.

One other thing worth mentioning is that in the most recent letter I came across, the CSA ordered the employer to make a weekly payment to the CSA, and were told to deduct the amounts paid to them from the employees payslip.

I hope this helps.

Martin

Thanks Martin! it's a bloody minefield!

[captainham]

I think it might have been discussed once or twice before

How have I never heard of that site, I love it!!(Let me google that for you I mean, not Google obviously!!)

[TheFaQQer]

I think it might have been discussed once or twice before

[Martin at NixonWilliams]

There are lots of forums on this but I'm looking for most recent and up to date advice so any advice welcome

1. What is the best way to tackle CSA when becoming a director of own Ltd Company?

2. How will CSA calculate my earnings? just salary of share dividends?

3. Can i agree a certain amount with CSA (over the basic amount) will they reassess my case after a year and potentially make me pay more? Is this done through my companies annual accounts?

and advice greatly appreciated!

thanks

G

How you manage question 1 is up to you, for questions 2 & 3:

2. Most of the letters I have seen just ask for details of salary and tax/NI paid however it is my understanding that you are obligated to inform them of your dividend income.

3. From what I have seen the payments are reassessed from time to time however I couldn't tell you what the intervals for this are. I have only ever seen the letters sent to the employers, so I am not sure how they go about gathering information other than that.

One other thing worth mentioning is that in the most recent letter I came across, the CSA ordered the employer to make a weekly payment to the CSA, and were told to deduct the amounts paid to them from the employees payslip.

I hope this helps.

Martin

[pbContract]

There are lots of forums on this but I'm looking for most recent and up to date advice so any advice welcome

1. What is the best way to tackle CSA when becoming a director of own Ltd Company?

2. How will CSA calculate my earnings? just salary of share dividends?

3. Can i agree a certain amount with CSA (over the basic amount) will they reassess my case after a year and potentially make me pay more? Is this done through my companies annual accounts?

and advice greatly appreciated!

thanks

G

Hi wside. Did you get answers on this??? I am in a similar situation and would like some advise on this... If not, can anyone help on this.

[wside]

There are lots of forums on this but I'm looking for most recent and up to date advice so any advice welcome

1. What is the best way to tackle CSA when becoming a director of own Ltd Company?

2. How will CSA calculate my earnings? just salary of share dividends?

3. Can i agree a certain amount with CSA (over the basic amount) will they reassess my case after a year and potentially make me pay more? Is this done through my companies annual accounts?

and advice greatly appreciated!

thanks

G