UPDATE on my tax haven ex and our CSA saga
Hi Sarah,
So off he goes to Paris and the South of France with his new partner, their child and my eldest daughter ( happy for her ) for a whole month ( on a self estimated annual income of less than 50,000. Although he did stay in utter luxury with friends and in his own apartment in Paris, a month driving around France is much costlier than a month at home, and he paid all four airfares) and the CSA meanwhile were assessing my appeal against being ordered to pay him child support. They delivered their decision while he was away. I haven't read their decision yet, even though it came in several weeks ago. I get a panic attack when I read anything from the CSA because I don't understand their reasoning. For example the day before the decision was made the CSA case officer called me to inform me what she was thinking of ordering. The case officer told me she had still tagged on extra an extra 30,000 to my income of last year that I didn't earn. I tried to explain that I had one credit card and I had to borrow from that credit card to meet pay my airfares to Sydney and that over a year that has amounted to over $7,000 of debt I now have as I was not paid enough to work interstate and cover my tickets home to my children ( reminding her that he had a $16,000 child support debt last year that he refused to pay, which if he had have paid, I wouldn't have had to work interstate as I would have had more time to find work in NSW before receiving an eviction order for non payment of rent - then he got out of his $16,000 debt because I was interstate and my care was reduced to 46% and I ended up having a child support debt to him!).
The case officer, angry that I was questioning how she can tag $30,000 onto my income when she had the account from the accountant of the company I worked for that stated exactly what my monthly income was, said, "Oh but thats income! Would you like me to add that credit card amount on top of what we have already estimated! ( which would make a total fictitious $40,000 more onto my actual income that I didn't earn) How can a credit card debt be considered "income"? Then when I said that I also received two years of back pay from Centrelink for school kids benefits that weren't paid to me as a result of the previous decision and then were paid once the decision was reversed when the truth was evidenced before them, she again said "oh, shall I had that too then!" ( which would bring my estimated income to $50,00 more than I actually earned). I wanted to bang my head against the wall. I can't argue against this skewed logic and almost punitive behaviour.
Anyway, so I still haven't opened the CSA decision, and a few days ago I received a summons to the Child Support tribunal ( forgotten the name) My ex is not happy with the judgement and is appealing it. So something must have gone in my favour this time for part of it. I have spoken to the tribunal and they said the appeal is purely on the decision made by the case officer. There is a one hour interview with each party and then two hours at the tribunal ( or not, if one or either party doesn't wish to attend). I can't do this myself because I go into a type of post traumatic stress panic when I'm in the same room as him for all he has put me through and continues to put me through. He has always won in court when self represented because I get too emotional, talk too much ( just like I write too much
then angry and in disbelief and I can't seem to communicate how Kafkaesque and unfair this whole nightmare has been and they don't know either because, as I only just found out, the CSA doesn't look at the case history to note there has been constant vexatious behaviour or consistent lies and reversals of orders as a result of lies or misrepresentation of fact. They just look at the matter before them.
So Im looking for a lawyer to read the CSA judgement, speak on my behalf and listen to what my ex wants ( to get out paying), and represent me in the tribunal for those two hours as I can't do it. The tribunal told me the official presiding will be a lawyer. The tribunal is in Sydney.
