Mother owes 6,000 in back child support

[syskjw]

Florida
I recieved custody of my daughter over threee years ago. Mother went to years without paying child support. She has since then had 2 other children with her husband. We have been through 3 tax seasons and my daughter have not recieved any money from her mothers income tax returns. I have called child support and the sent me a copy the letter that was sent to IRS stating she owes funds. Her and her husband do not work enough to not quailify for the earned income credit. And last year she made a comment to me she bought the car with her tax money. I am currently lead to beleive that do to her and her husband owing back child support that they are letting a family member claim their children. What can I do? I have asked child support if they could check into it but they just bring up the letter that was sent into IRS. And on the last court appearense the mother was ordered to get a job and have the child support taking out of her check and to reappear in court in Novemeber to verify employement. She showed up a day late to verify employement so they put a bench warrent on her and she had to pay $1000.00 of course went to my daughter. But that is the only money that has been sent to me. I've called child support to inforce but the told me that she is not behind because of the bench warrent payment. I explained to them what the judge has ordered her to do but they said when a payment is made you start all over with the procedures to inforce.

 

[LdiJ]

Florida
I recieved custody of my daughter over threee years ago. Mother went to years without paying child support. She has since then had 2 other children with her husband. We have been through 3 tax seasons and my daughter have not recieved any money from her mothers income tax returns. I have called child support and the sent me a copy the letter that was sent to IRS stating she owes funds. Her and her husband do not work enough to not quailify for the earned income credit. And last year she made a comment to me she bought the car with her tax money. I am currently lead to beleive that do to her and her husband owing back child support that they are letting a family member claim their children. What can I do? I have asked child support if they could check into it but they just bring up the letter that was sent into IRS. And on the last court appearense the mother was ordered to get a job and have the child support taking out of her check and to reappear in court in Novemeber to verify employement. She showed up a day late to verify employement so they put a bench warrent on her and she had to pay $1000.00 of course went to my daughter. But that is the only money that has been sent to me. I've called child support to inforce but the told me that she is not behind because of the bench warrent payment. I explained to them what the judge has ordered her to do but they said when a payment is made you start all over with the procedures to inforce.

They are most likely filing an "injured spouse" form with their taxes. Since their kids are her husband's children, then the children's portion of the return is being assigned to him. That leaves only her income assigned to her. Most likely her income isn't high enough for any portion of the refund to be attributed to her.....heck, she may not even have any federal withholding if she claims the 4 exemptions she is entitled to claim for withholding.

 

[Gracie3787]

Florida
I recieved custody of my daughter over threee years ago. Mother went to years without paying child support. She has since then had 2 other children with her husband. We have been through 3 tax seasons and my daughter have not recieved any money from her mothers income tax returns. I have called child support and the sent me a copy the letter that was sent to IRS stating she owes funds. Her and her husband do not work enough to not quailify for the earned income credit. And last year she made a comment to me she bought the car with her tax money. I am currently lead to beleive that do to her and her husband owing back child support that they are letting a family member claim their children. What can I do? I have asked child support if they could check into it but they just bring up the letter that was sent into IRS. And on the last court appearense the mother was ordered to get a job and have the child support taking out of her check and to reappear in court in Novemeber to verify employement. She showed up a day late to verify employement so they put a bench warrent on her and she had to pay $1000.00 of course went to my daughter. But that is the only money that has been sent to me. I've called child support to inforce but the told me that she is not behind because of the bench warrent payment. I explained to them what the judge has ordered her to do but they said when a payment is made you start all over with the procedures to inforce.

LdiJ is most likely correct that your ex didn't have enough income/witholding to even get a refund. So there isn't anything you can do about that part.

However, you can do some things yourself instead of waiting for CSE to do it.
First thing though- is she making the court ordered payments now? If she is the only thing that you can do is to file a petition for payment of arrears. It will be a seperate court order from the CS order and the court will order a specific amount to be paid on arrears each month.

If she is NOT paying the court ordered CS you can file a motion for civil contempt/enforcement. You can find the forms at www.flcourts.org just click on family law forms. On the form there is a space to check to ask for payment of arrears, even if the court were not able to find her in contempt, they would be able to order specific arrears payments- as long as you ask for payment.

For either one you will need to serve your ex and give copies to CSE. Once you do that, CSE has to, by law follow up on it. I do recommend though that you don't rely on them to though. If you file the motion you can set a hearing date usually right away. The court clerk or self help office can assist with that. If you file a PETITION, you'll have to have your ex served by personal service, etc. The website has all the info on that.

Here are other links that will be useful:

www.flsenate.gov/STATUTES Chapter 61 is where the CS laws/guidelines are.

http://phonl.com/fl_law/rules/frcp for the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure

http://phonl.com/fl_law/rules/famlawrules for the Florida Family Law rules of Procedure

 

[syskjw]

Both her and her husband owe alot of money on back child support. He doesn't pay support for his other child either. SO how can they get a tax return when both owe back child support and their income is small. Thanks for the links I will give that a try.