Hi,
My ex recently filed for a change of assessment with child support. Her contention is that I am misrepresenting my true income.
In the initial decision by CSA, the assessor had a brain fart and somehow just didn't see my up to date and filed Tax Returns (personal and business). So she has instead retrieved three months worth of bank statements from my bank. The problem with this being, my work is very seasonal and only makes an income over about 5 or 6 months of the year. The rest of the time it is for all intents non operational and does not trade or bring in any income.
It also just happens that the 3 months of statements they have drawn on are in the absolute peak period of the work. So essentially, what CSA have seen is 3 months of me making hay whilst the sun shines in perfect weather and from that they have extrapolated the income for that extraordinary period, multiplied it by 4 to give the total over 12 months and of course concluded that I have an annual income that is about 2-3 times what it actually is.
So, I have at that point of course disputed the decision with CSA and the process began. I wrote a number of emails and letters to CSA during this dispute period as well as phonecalls with the dispute assessor where I made it very very clear that seasonal nature of my work and income and in depth phone discussion regarding this was definately had.
I again lodged my current latest tax returns as part of my dispute and they clearly show an accurate representation of my annual income.
The kicker is though - CSA have for some reason refused to accept them as evidence of my income and they tell me that this was based on a request by my ex to set them aside.
I have just lodged my application for review with the AAT, but I have some questions that hopefully someone can help answer for me...
Firstly, can CSA just refuse to accept an accurate, professionally produced by my accountants, filed and up to date tax return as evidence of my income? I'm absolutely stunned if that is indeed something they can do!
Secondly, would making the argument to the AAT that these tax returns should be the evidence used to make the assessment and should have been relied upon (given the fact they are pretty much the main legally accepted statement of annual finances relied on by the ATO etc) be a wise plan of action?
I'm concerned that I could go in arguing the wrong case - because if the decision to set aside the tax returns in their dispute assessment is indeed something they have the discression to do (which is insane...), then I would lose my appeal with the AAT because they would rule that CSA were not obligated to rely on the Tax Returns and indeed, given the 3 months of financial statements they had available to them in the dispute review, the only conclusion they could come to was the albeit inaccurate one that they have.
What should I be presenting to the AAT as acceptable evidence of my annual income? I've got nothing to hide, my tax returns are accurate and fair, there's been no accounting wizardry or tricks - I stand by them.
Sorry for the long post, thanks for any help and input!
My ex recently filed for a change of assessment with child support. Her contention is that I am misrepresenting my true income.
In the initial decision by CSA, the assessor had a brain fart and somehow just didn't see my up to date and filed Tax Returns (personal and business). So she has instead retrieved three months worth of bank statements from my bank. The problem with this being, my work is very seasonal and only makes an income over about 5 or 6 months of the year. The rest of the time it is for all intents non operational and does not trade or bring in any income.
It also just happens that the 3 months of statements they have drawn on are in the absolute peak period of the work. So essentially, what CSA have seen is 3 months of me making hay whilst the sun shines in perfect weather and from that they have extrapolated the income for that extraordinary period, multiplied it by 4 to give the total over 12 months and of course concluded that I have an annual income that is about 2-3 times what it actually is.
So, I have at that point of course disputed the decision with CSA and the process began. I wrote a number of emails and letters to CSA during this dispute period as well as phonecalls with the dispute assessor where I made it very very clear that seasonal nature of my work and income and in depth phone discussion regarding this was definately had.
I again lodged my current latest tax returns as part of my dispute and they clearly show an accurate representation of my annual income.
The kicker is though - CSA have for some reason refused to accept them as evidence of my income and they tell me that this was based on a request by my ex to set them aside.
I have just lodged my application for review with the AAT, but I have some questions that hopefully someone can help answer for me...
Firstly, can CSA just refuse to accept an accurate, professionally produced by my accountants, filed and up to date tax return as evidence of my income? I'm absolutely stunned if that is indeed something they can do!
Secondly, would making the argument to the AAT that these tax returns should be the evidence used to make the assessment and should have been relied upon (given the fact they are pretty much the main legally accepted statement of annual finances relied on by the ATO etc) be a wise plan of action?
I'm concerned that I could go in arguing the wrong case - because if the decision to set aside the tax returns in their dispute assessment is indeed something they have the discression to do (which is insane...), then I would lose my appeal with the AAT because they would rule that CSA were not obligated to rely on the Tax Returns and indeed, given the 3 months of financial statements they had available to them in the dispute review, the only conclusion they could come to was the albeit inaccurate one that they have.
What should I be presenting to the AAT as acceptable evidence of my annual income? I've got nothing to hide, my tax returns are accurate and fair, there's been no accounting wizardry or tricks - I stand by them.
Sorry for the long post, thanks for any help and input!
