In states like Georgia, you could be placed on a “most wanted list” if you don`t make your court-ordered child support. This means that shirking your obligations as a parent can not only result in sanctions such as fines and jail time, but can also damage your reputation. While you may be inclined to say “no paycheck, no gambling” to a non-paying parent who refuses financial assistance, this can only complicate matters. On the other hand, if you were the party who moved and the other parent is the party responsible for your child`s upbringing, then you would be the one who would have to pay child support every month. It doesn`t matter if you and the other parent were married, as long as you both had a child together and are considered the parents of that child. If the parent owes certain other government debts, such as federal student loans or federal income tax, the parent`s tax refund is used to pay that debt before child support is paid. In addition, the tax interception program does not help much if a parent does not file their tax return or is not eligible for a tax refund, which can happen for a variety of reasons. The best way to think about child support and visits is to think of them as two different decisions based on very different factors. For this reason, they usually act independently of each other when it comes to law enforcement. In general, child support may be considered late if the due date has passed and no payment has been received. Depending on the content of the support order, the indebted parent may have a short period of time (i.e. a grace period) to compensate for the missing payment. However, if that deadline has passed and they still haven`t made the payment, the court or a state child support agency can issue a “child benefit violation notice.” It seems fair that if a parent is entitled to a tax refund and owes child support, child support should be paid first.
For this reason, federal law provides that if a parent owes child support, a state child support office can intercept that parent`s tax refund for you and apply it to child support arrears. Even if the child for whom support is owed is now emancipated, a parent`s tax refund can be applied to the subsequent child support owe. If obtaining physical custody exempts you from paying child support, the loss of your parental rights will have the same result. However, remember that you should not make decisions about the child or demand to see the child. If the court has ordered maintenance, failure to pay the fixed amount can have significant legal and economic consequences. If a parent is able to pay child support and deliberately refuses to comply with a court order, they may be found in contempt of court and face fines, jail time, or both. Intercepted tax refunds for child support are first applied to family allowances allocated to the State, for example for periods when public assistance has been requested and child support has not been paid. Once all property owed to the Crown has been paid, the reimbursement will be applied to the child support owed to the other parent.
A lawyer with experience in child support law can help a parent apply to the court to enforce the existing court order. You can also go through the study with the parents to make sure they get the income they and especially their child need. Let`s say you had a child with another person. The three of you lived together as a family for several years, but your partner decided to move. Your partner, assuming it is a biological parent, would then be required to send you monthly child support payments so that you can raise the child. Both parents are legally obliged to provide financially for their child, regardless of whether the parents have divorced, been separated or have never been married. It is important to note that child support is a payment made by the non-custodial parent to the custodial parent to ensure that a child`s basic needs are met. Custody, child support, and other co-parenting arrangements can be difficult to navigate, even if everyone else is doing their part. So if a parent categorically refuses to contribute, even if a court order orders them to do so, it can lead to a lot of stress and frustration for the custodial parent. Parents who do not pay child support can be detained for contempt of court, which is a crime. The penalties for a parent who ignores child support payments depend on the specific details of each case, such as the amount of child support that is late and how long they have since they made a payment.
The higher the amount and the later the payments, the harsher the penalty. In some cases, there are logical and understandable reasons for this delay. Maybe something happened, such as a sudden loss of income that affected a parent`s ability to pay court-ordered child support. In this case, the non-custodial parent should find a lawyer and review options for adjusting the order.