New Clause 16
Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill
4:30 pm
Andrew Selous (Shadow Minister, Work & Pensions; South West Bedfordshire, Conservative)
I understand the hon. Gentleman’s point but, for example, an investigation ought to be initiated if the non-resident parent had significant dividend income that was logged by a different system—we should recall our earlier discussion of the different pots of income that are on separate HMRC systems. I understand what the hon. Gentleman is saying and that the basis for initiation would be prior year HMRC tax accounts, but there could still be cases in which an assessment did not include the full scope of a person’s income. In such cases, given the separation of sources of income—I mentioned dividend income—the parents’ agreement might not fully reflect the scope of income.