Legal Question in Family Law in California

can the noncustodial parent use a tax refund against the custodial parent?

my girlfriend has been dealing with a child support issue for over a year now, regarding her 3 children. the father of these children currently has a wage assignment to pay a temporary ordered amount through the dcs in riverside. they went to court in jan and it was recalculated and a permanent order was to be established but her ex forgot all his paystubs so it has been continued to march. his lawyer, she can't afford one, sent her a supeona requesting all her tax info be supplied for 2004 and 2005 when they return to court in march. she hasn't done her taxes for 2005 yet but is worried that her refund will hurt her when they go to figure the child support amount because she feels they are trying to use that as more income for her. she feels this because when they went in jan the dcs attorney calculated that based on what she provided them, he should be paying her $500 more per month than what he currently is. should she wait until after court in march to do her current taxes(she desperately needs her refund), or is a refund (she usually gets about $4000 back), able to be calculated and used as more of a monthly income than what she really makes? thank you


Asked on 2/05/06, 2:46 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
KATHIE SIMMONS KATHIE SIMMONS

Re: can the noncustodial parent use a tax refund against the custodial parent?

The tax refund is not income because child support is based upon the gross (pretax)income. Your friend is using the IRS as a savings account. This is a bad idea in that she gets no interest on her money and she has to file her tax return to get it back from the IRS. She needs to file immediately and change her withholding for 2006 so that she gets a smaller refund next year.

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Answered on 2/06/06, 3:32 pm


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