Limited company and child maintenance

[Rebecca75]

I have posted a question about this before but can't find it...

For those of you who are divorced and who's ex has a limited company (he is a sole trader with no overheads) who set up the limited company for tax reasons.
Since our divorce both of our financial circumstances have changed - I now earn half of what I was and have had to take furlough as I couldn't home school my primary aged children and work full-time - we were all losing the plot. So my income is now £18,400. I work in sales so have quite a low basic but obv now no commission.

He has gone from £50k a year when we divorced to £40k PER MONTH! (I know this because stupidly his business bank statement still comes here each month)

He pays e £600 a month for the kids. I have asked for an increase, even just in the short term until I can get back to work again but he said no..

Have any of you got experience of csm with limited companies and can tell me how it works and what my chances are of getting an increase?

Think you still have to apply to CMS in the first instance and then depending on what they assess you then subsequently apply for a variation that the lifestyle exceeds their stated income and the net can be cast a bit wider. Though you may well need to start some form of legal proceeding or get some advice from a. Solicitor about how likely this will be to succeed

I don’t mean to sound rude but are you really sure that’s not turnover ?

@millymollymoomoo - you're not being rude. And no, it's not turnover - he is an office based contractor who has managed to get paid an absolute fortune.

Thanks wobytide - I guess a phonecall will be the best thing to do - Ijust don't want him to know that I'm looking into it

So that’s monthly net profit?
If it’s a limited company it’s not ‘his’it belongs to the company. He’ll be paid a salary - what’s that ?

Go online to Companies House and look him up. Read his filed accounts.

The CMS can only take £3,000 a month as income - anything above this you need to go to court; I've linked their page for you :-) page 10

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/672432/how-we-work-out-child-maintenance.pdf

£3k per week is the limit not month. Otherwise it would force a lot more into court system

Why are you opening his mail?

What the company earns is not the same as what he earns. He could pay himself )12k and take the rat in dividends, which is a depressingly common approach in this situation

So you've opened his post and you want more money?
You sound a bit greedy, sorry