Child care expense question.

[gud-daddy]

I am the (non custodial) father of a 7 Y/o girl. My daughters Mom has custody and I have visitation. My daughter stays with her mom and we all reside in NYC.  She recently changed jobs to a less paying one and is making demands for more money.  We have a support order in place with child care included in the total.  She is saying her rent has gone up and that the sitter is charging more.  I do not believe she has a real sitter. The letter she brings to court is just a friend of hers saying how much she is charging to watch my daughter.  My mother is willing to watch my daughter and would charge much less than the current sitter if anything at all. I also have two other candidates to choose from. Is there anyway the judge would let me have any influence over who the sitter would be? Can I find a child care provider and present that in court not being the custodial parent?

[Jade]

>I am the (non custodial) father of a 7 Y/o girl. My daughters
>Mom has custody and I have visitation. My daughter stays with
>her mom and we all reside in NYC.  She recently changed jobs
>to a less paying one and is making demands for more money.  We
>have a support order in place with child care included in the
>total.  She is saying her rent has gone up and that the sitter
>is charging more.  I do not believe she has a real sitter. The
>letter she brings to court is just a friend of hers saying how
>much she is charging to watch my daughter.  My mother is
>willing to watch my daughter and would charge much less than
>the current sitter if anything at all. I also have two other
>candidates to choose from. Is there anyway the judge would let
>me have any influence over who the sitter would be? Can I find
>a child care provider and present that in court not being the
>custodial parent?

You can.  But the courts usually side with the custodial parent.

As for your ex taking a job for less than what she was making, you can have the difference imputed in the income imputed to her.  

[mistoffolees]

Her change in income is irrelevant if she voluntarily took a lower paying job. The court will continue to act as if she hadn't changed jobs.

If the change was involuntary, you MIGHT be able to get the court to consider the higher level, but only if you can demonstrate that she could easily have found a higher paying job. This is extremely hard to do except for a few unusual circumstances (such as if she were a registered nurse and took a job as a nanny, for example).

Since you're the NCP, you have no control over the sitter, but it shouldn't matter. Your support obligation will depend on your income and the CP's income, but the expenses don't enter into the equation (at least in my state).

You do have one option - if you think that fraud is being committed, you could notify the DA (unlikely to result in anything) OR, you could tell them that you're sending a copy of their letter to the IRS and you sure hope that the 'sitter' is really declaring this income on her tax returns. I believe that also entitles you to receive some of the back taxes if the IRS collects.  If they really ARE committing fraud, then they'll probably back down, but only if you catch them before they get on the stand. Once they're on the stand, they've already committed perjury and it may be too late for them to back down.

It's also possible that you might be able to get the judge to order a subpoena for financial records documenting the claim. I suspect that you could make the case that you need to see canceled checks and / or the 'sitter's' tax return. You could ask Socrateaser whether you could get a subpoena in this case.

[Ref]

1. Change in rent means nothing. Don't worry about it.

2. Change in income only means something if it was involuntary. If it was involuntary and the change in wages is pretty much the same. Don't worry about it.

3. Change in daycare is relevant. If it is a large change, do some research. Ask licensed daycare providers for quotes and see if the amount her friend is asking exceeds that amount. If it does, use these quotes in court (if it gets that far) to show that the expense is not reasonable.

You probably can't make BM change daycare providers, but you could be able to use the lower amount in the calculation, if her number is unreasonable.

What I would do is google "NY child support calculator" and crunch some numbers. Try to see what you would have to pay with the increase in child care and her decreased pay and then see with just the child care change. It might not even be enough for you to woryy about. I believe all states have a threshold, usually a $ amount change in support, before they will consider it. My state is $50 change.

Good Luck
Ref

[gud-daddy]

I thank everyone who was able to help me get a sense of what to expect.  This helps a lot most def.

[burry]

Just real quick... the BM of my SS's tried the same thing with daycare... telling us that her friend was going to be watching them and she would only be charging $60 a week, $30/$30, and she would provide receipts. Well we were quite fishy about BM actually contributing anything (there were also other issues with this friend), but my DH talked to the friend and worked out some issues and told BM it would be ok, but that he would need her social security number so he could claim what he was paying for CS on taxes and ... my goodness... all of a sudden this friend would do it for free! *rolling eyes*... sometimes just asking for certain information lets people know they COULD get linked to fraud... and they want no part of it.

Good luck.

[Jade]

>Just real quick... the BM of my SS's tried the same thing
>with daycare... telling us that her friend was going to be
>watching them and she would only be charging $60 a week,
>$30/$30, and she would provide receipts. Well we were quite
>fishy about BM actually contributing anything (there were also
>other issues with this friend), but my DH talked to the friend
>and worked out some issues and told BM it would be ok, but
>that he would need her social security number so he could
>claim what he was paying for CS on taxes and ... my
>goodness... all of a sudden this friend would do it for free!
>*rolling eyes*... sometimes just asking for certain
>information lets people know they COULD get linked to fraud...
>and they want no part of it.
>
>Good luck.

Or that they would have to claim income and don't want to do that.  

BTW, you can't claim a deduction for child support on your taxes.  And only the parent who claims the children can claim the child care costs.  

[gud-daddy]

The IRS will now let non custodial parents file for EIC so why is it that you cannot file for child care costs if you are contributing a portion?

[Jade]

>The IRS will now let non custodial parents file for EIC so
>why is it that you cannot file for child care costs if you are
>contributing a portion?

A person can file for EIC without having children and it is based on one's gross income.  You can't deduct child support paid to the CP from the gross income, only alimony.  Only the custodial parent can get the EIC for the children.  That was clearly spelled out in the recent package I got from the IRS to file my taxes.  

You need to claim the child that the child care costs are being paid out for in order to get the child care deduction.  

[azstepmom]

Hmm, I didn't realize all that.

My DH claims one and BM claims one... so DH claims the child care that he pays for SS that he claims... I was under the impression that as long as the NCP is current on paying child support, they can claim the child every other year (that comes written in on the paperwork in my county)??? I guess it's different in every agreement... crazy.