Arrears Remitted Anyone??
OK, so it seems under the new legislation that us paying parents (love the term “paying”) can get our arrears remitted if we apply and if we have been paying our liability more often than not. So, I contacted IRD CS about this on the 1st of April and was informed that I should call back in June and they may look at wiping the 2% portion of my arrears which in my case is about $9,000. So I called back in June and was informed that my application would be processed and I would be told of the outcome in 2 months. Surprise surprise, here we are almost 3 months later and still no word as to whether the arrears would be remitted and no time frame given as to when I would be informed of the outcome. Just wondering if anyone else has had any experiences, good or bad, with getting arrears remitted???
Regards
HadEnough
Hi HadEnough, I have had a similar experience with IRD. Mine is through an overseas court order against me which incurred arrears, however the arrears I’ve been fighting with IRD & the Family courts is 1. I had not been informed or served by the ex (resides in Fiji) of a variation increase on my child support payments in Feb 2012, because I knew nothing of it & was paying my regular payments she then filed in our Family courts which took 12 months Feb 2013 going by the stamp from the court registra when they recieved & filed at the Auckland Family Court which then it took nearly 3 months to get from Auckland to the Manukau family court going by their stamp & then I didn’t get served till Aug 2013 because the ex had the wrong street number. The arrears that I had incurred had built up to a very tidy sum of NZ$ but then converting it to Fiji$ the ex would’ve felt like a millionaire. I had put on my investigator hat & reading through all the papers from the courts & IRD I then found that I had been charged an extra NZ$6000 because the IRD had interpreted the court order wrong & when I called them they did agree that I have been charged double child support for a period of 8 months but they were only following the court orders …go figure!!!!! And they can’t amend it until they get a court order to do so, of course I then went hunting for a lawyer which was hard yakka because no South Auckland Lawyer wanted to deal with an overseas maintenance order that has been filed here. Finally found one which cost $4000 total & because the ex had to be served because I was fighting her variation & to have all the arrears remitted at no fault of my own + to get the double child support charges for 8 months corrected, bear in mind she resides in Fiji, she gets a bloody NZ Lawyer appointed to her case under our Legal Aid system & doesn’t pay a dam cent for this Lawyer & then I lose my case because the court looks at the child best interest. Made me wonder whether that judge had even read my case, I had never missed any payment for the 9 years I had been here before all this & all I was fighting for was the fact I wasn’t served any papers from Fiji regarding the increase of child support & the arrears that incurred over nearly 2 years before I was even served & here’s the doozy, with all the letters the IRD sends out every month that if you pay regularly they will look at remitting some or all of the arrears that they charge for late payments, yes + I got the IRD’s late payment charges for that whole period of nearly 2 years. They have given me the same story that I don’t qualify under the overseas child maintenance court orders of the remittance of arrears unless I go through the Family Courts. I’d like to know if anyone’s been through overseas child maintenance & how they got on .. but I think if you keep on at IRD you’d have a better chance than I would.
Comment by avinia — Wed 7th September 2016 @ 9:18 pm
Hey Avinia, I’m definitely in an overseas child maintenance situation. I live in Australia and the mother of my child lives in Canada. The IRD people haven’t said anything about whether or not it makes a difference that my child is in Canada and I’m in Oz. The only difference I am aware of is that the Oz child tax agency (The CSA) are absolutely merciless when it comes to collecting arrears. I had to negotiate a deal with them whereby I pay $450 in arrears per month on top of my liability. The alternative would have been to pay their default amount of $1000 AUD per month which would have meant that over half of my net pay would have been paid in CS + arrears every month. the way I got into arrears wasn’t really my fault. I went through a period of unemployment where I had no money and was dependent on my wife’s income. Once I found work the IRD CS people slammed me with retrospective arrears which I had no means of paying. This was especially difficult because the actual liability had increased significantly. I haven’t missed a payment for over 2 years now though and I had hoped that I may be eligible for an arrears write off. I’m not holding my breath 🙁
Comment by Had_Enough — Thu 8th September 2016 @ 12:37 pm
I just finished paying off my arrears, i emailed them to ask if they had sent a letter to my employer as it was getting close to the final payment, they replied that they would write off the last $20. Basically if I had called earlier I could’ve got more written off so my advise is to call every couple of months to re-ask about remittance. It seems to be standard operating procedure now to help those Paying Parents to get debt free (well that’s child support debt created by IRD free)
In my case it was IRD calling my ex to tell her she could get more money if they cancelled the voluntary agreement that led to all my woes with them. A completely illegal act on their part.
Even when you are paying and have no debt with them keep checking your My IRD for any changes. You don’t always get a call or letter.
Comment by too tired — Tue 20th September 2016 @ 11:17 pm
Yup, same boat. not a dam thing done. I’ve questioned many of their odd acts lately – taking out too much, not taking out anything. Suddenly noting I do not have a child, income change, you name it. Then, reneging on a write off deal. i’m now down the path of requesting all data via Privacy Act, sifting through it, found a tonne of notes that are complete lies, and so on. Will start complaints processes, and up onto Human Rights Commission.
It’s time this idiocy stops.
Comment by Disillusioned — Sat 1st October 2016 @ 1:34 am
Here we go disillusioned . Just make sure you read the words in the link before you click on it
http://www.justice.govt.nz/policy/constitutional-law-and-human-rights/human-rights/international-human-rights-instruments/international-human-rights-instruments-1/international-human-rights-instruments
Comment by Bunyip — Mon 3rd October 2016 @ 7:44 pm
Hey Disillusioned, I know what you mean. I received two letters the other day telling me how my assessment had been changed due to a change in the Custodial persons circumstances. This is wrong on so many levels. For example I would either have had to create another child with her (a frightening thought). Or she would have had to conjure up some sort of Admin Review reassessment but I would have been notified about that anyway. Both documents told me that my NEW assessment was exactly what the old one was but I hadn’t contested this recently or changed income.. What a waste of time and energy and trees.. As for the arrears write off. I applied almost 4 months ago now and they say it’s being processed. How can this possibly take so long. Surely it’s just a matter of checking that I’m still paying, which I am, and some basic arithmetic. These people are grossly incompetent to say the least!!
Comment by Had_Enough — Tue 4th October 2016 @ 6:27 pm
A few years ago I got into $17,000 arrears of which only $5,000 was liable to the mother. I stumbled upon an IRD process that allowed the penalties to be nulled if the mother filled out a form. Luckily for me the mother was amenable to discussions provided I paid her the outstanding balance at that time. It worked out fine apart from a protracted accounting issue within the IRD system that eventually got sorted. The form is IR129. This was 8 years ago & the form is still on the IRD website so good luck!
Comment by Johno — Wed 4th October 2017 @ 8:08 pm