Your legal obligations
As an employer of a child support customer you have a number of obligations under child support legislation.
- You must advise your employee, in writing, how much child support has been deducted each pay period (e.g. on their pay slip);
- You are required to keep appropriate records of the child support you deduct
and remit;
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You are required to respect your employee's privacy - you cannot tell anyone (other than the employee in question) that you deduct child support from your employee's pay. CSA will not discuss your employee's personal affairs with you;
- It is illegal to discriminate against any employee or potential employee because of their child support responsibilities. Discrimination includes charging employees a deduction fee for making child support deductions that are made under a statutory obligation;
- You cannot make a deduction of child support that leaves an employee with a net pay (after tax instalment deductions and deductions of child support) of less than the PEA (unless deductions are made under a Section 72A Notice);
- You must make sure you deduct the right amount. CSA will tell you the right amount to deduct from your employee's pay. You cannot change this even if your employee, their solicitor or anyone else asks you.
- Payments to CSA are due on the seventh day of every month. If you pay late, then the
money will be late getting to the other parent and the children of your employee.
If you do not meet your obligations, the law imposes penalties.
If you are late making payments to CSA, you may incur a Late Payment Penalty. CSA may remit these penalties in certain circumstances. For example, you can ask CSA to remit a penalty for late payment if the delay was beyond your control.
If we do not remit a penalty, you may object to that decision. Contact CSA on 131 272 for more information.
If you do not make deductions when you are required to, or make deductions and do not pay them to CSA, you may be required by a court to make those payments to CSA as well as paying a fine and legal costs.