How to Get the IRS to Pay Your Child Support

Child support, as determined by the courts, can sometimes be a heavy financial burden for the non-custodial parent. It's considered a necessary evil, even though it can keep the non-custodial parent from living a comfortable lifestyle for themselves. There are, however, some ways to get the IRS to "help" with your child support payments, in addition to finding a way to get the child exemptions every year for your tax return to help ease the burden of paying financial support to your ex all year round.

* Ask for the tax exemptions for the children every year. IRS tax code states that you can claim a child if it lives with you for over half the year, or 183 days out of the year. However, if you have a court order that states the exemptions are yours regardless, than the court order "trumps" the IRS code. When in the courtroom determining custody, or while working on the parenting plan with your former spouse, consider asking for the tax exemptions every year. This will help get you money back through a refund to help balance out the amount you owed in child support all year.


* Provide medical benefits to your children. In some cases, you can write off the expenses of medical care through your taxes at the end of the year. This can help you tremendously if your former spouse pays half of medical expenses, and you are able to claim the full amount on your own taxes if you initially paid the bills and then were reimbursed by your former spouse for the other half of the medical expenses. This can help increase your refund come tax time.


* Combine your child support and alimony together at "maintenance." Child support is not tax deductible, but alimony is, and it is paid with pre-tax dollars. It counts as a deduction to you as the payor and as income to the payee. This is a simple way to write off what you pay to your former spouse each month through your taxes, and get relief through the IRS.

Find more tips and tricks in the Fathers' Rights Protection System by Dennis Gac!

No Child Support? No Car! New Ontario Law Starting Next Month

Next month, as of December 1st, a new Ontario, Canada law will be in effect that will allow local police the ability to impound vehicles of parents that fall behind on their child support and alimony payments.

But really, what good will this do?  In most cases, the reason payments are not being made is not becuase the parents are refusing to pay them, but because the parents can't afford to.  Take away the car they need in order to get to work every day, and you've just made a mountain out of a molehill.  Eliminating a parent's transportation to their job could cause them to lose their job, thus keeping them from being able to make any payments at all--it just makes the problem even worse.

In addition, when the Family Responsibility Office mishandles or loses a payment and someone's car is towed for all the wrong reasons, this can create quite the dilema for all involved.

In order for someone to modify their child support or alimony payments, they need to hire a lawyer, but if they can't pay a lawyer, they must pay the family support payments.  It creates a lose/lose situation for any parent in a financial bind.

Read more about this new upcoming law from the National Post.