Legal Question in Family Law in California
Child Custody
My children are 11 and 4 and their father and I are not together have never been married and the children have been living with me for the past year and a half. Their dad does not give me any child support but I have not asked for it either, the reason being is because I work under the table and he has threatened me that if I do take him in for child support that he will report me for not paying taxes but he has also put me down in the past as a dependent in his taxes so my question is what is my status in this matter?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Child Custody
You can't control whether he reports you or not and even if he does report you, who knows whether the tax authorities will go after you or not.
What you do know is that the father should be helping to support his children, and if he doesn't do so voluntarily, you have to make him by filing a court action. The family law judge you draw will certainly not care about under the table allegations and will not be reporting you to any tax authorities, the judge will care about your children getting an appropriate support award.