What is a CSA notional assessment and how does it affect FTB?
For some child support agreements, the formula child support liability will be used to calculate your FTB, instead of the agreed amount.
For certain kinds of child support agreements, the Child Support Agency will work out the annual rate of child support that would otherwise be payable under the child support legislation if there was no agreement. This will be called the 'CSA notional assessment' because it is a 'notional' rather than an actual rate of child support. The amount of child support that would be received under a CSA notional assessment is the amount that will be used in the maintenance income test for FTB Part A.
Example: Michael and Jane have registered a child support agreement for their son Thomas. They have agreed that Michael will pay an annual rate of $4,000 in child support. The CSA notional assessment for the whole of 2008-09 is $5,000. When applying the maintenance income test in calculating Jane's FTB Part A rate, the notional amount of $5,000 will be used instead of the actual agreement amount of $4,000
If you have an agreement and collect child support privately...
If you make a child support agreement on or after 1 July 2008 and collect your child support privately, the maintenance income test for FTB Part A will use the notional amount of child support.Example: In Michael and Jane's case, the notional amount of child support ($5,000) would be used in the maintenance income test for FTB Part A to work out Jane's rate of FTB Part A.
If you have an agreement and child support is collected through the Child Support Agency...
If you make a child support agreement on or after 1 July 2008 and the Child Support Agency collects the child support payments, special rules apply if you receive less than 100 per cent of the child support amount payable under your agreement.If you receive less than 100 per cent of your agreement amount of child support, then the maintenance income test for FTB Part A will not use 100 per cent of the notional amount of child support. It will use a percentage of this amount that is equal to the percentage of the agreement amount that you received.
Example: Alex and Maria have a child support agreement and payments are collected by the CSA. They have agreed that Maria is to receive an annual rate of $6,000 in child support from Alex. The notional amount of child support is $5,000.
The CSA collects $3,000 in child support payments from Alex. This is equal to 50 per cent of Alex and Maria's agreement amount. This means that, when working out Maria's rate of FTB Part A, the maintenance income test will use 50 per cent of the notional amount of $5,000. That is, the amount of $2,500 will be used.
The CSA collects $3,000 in child support payments from Alex. This is equal to 50 per cent of Alex and Maria's agreement amount. This means that, when working out Maria's rate of FTB Part A, the maintenance income test will use 50 per cent of the notional amount of $5,000. That is, the amount of $2,500 will be used.
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