Working out finances WRT bonuses received.

[GoingTatsUp]

DH works in finance and typically gets a bonus of 85-100K a year. This is a mixture of shares and cash. After tax of course it is not this amount. He also gets other shares.

When splitting finances, how can this be taken into account. I don't see how I can add it to the CMS calculator.

Couldn’t you take the last three years salary and bonus and get an average?

CMS calculation is based on the last year's relevant, taxable, income, which includes bonus - this information is taken from HMRC.

i.e. if his salary was 150K, and he had a bonus of 50K, his relevant income for the last year was 200k, and CMS would be calculated accordingly.

In terms of the variability of the bonus, he can request it is decreased if he can demonstrate a reduction in earnings greater than a certain threshold (i.e. if he got a 50K bonus one year, and 0 the next, he could apply to have the CMS varied down).

Also worth pointing out, that CMS only considers gross income up to 3K a week (circa £150k a year). Any more than that is not considered.

So what happens about the loads of money they earn on top of the 3K?

I think you can apply to a court for extra child maintenance, but the CMS calculation itself won't take anything more than this cap into account.

Obviously if he is a very high earner then this can factor into the overall divorce settlement (perhaps in the form of spousal maintenance or in an asset split that favours you).

If this is about providing for your child why are you bothered about the "loads of money" he earns on top of 3k a week.

No child costs that much.

On a salary of £150k pa, 1child who stays with the NRP 1-2 nights per week you’ll receive £1,058 pm.

That’s more than enough. It’s up to both parents to provide, not just the NRP.