DIfferent Wage Garnishment/Child support question

[wysiwyg]

Soc,

Child support and wage garnishment in IN.

Divorce decree states "The Petitioner should be entitled to declare the minor child, as a tax exemption for income tax purposes beginning in tax year 1996, so long as the Petitioner is current in all child support payments due as of December 31st of the calendar year for which the Petitioner is declaring the exemption. The Respondent should execute any and all  documents required for the Petitioner to exercise said exemption as required by applicable state or federal taxing authorities."


Child support always shows as being paid on the dates I am paid.  We have had a few issues with the CHild support being posted to the account very late due to the employer paying 2-3 payments at a time, the court clerk not doing it timely, or the post office delivery and government holidays.

The Child suppot agency states that the date the child support is paid is the date it is credited to the account, but the paycheck stubs always show a date paid date.  I have tried to explain to CS folks that I have no control over the date the money is posted as I hvae never had the money in my hand to pay them that under a court order I have to rely on employer, post office and court clerk.


Questions:

1.  who is responsible for the payments after I have "paid" them in my paycheck?

2.  What is the actual date paid?

3.  Given the divorce decree quoted above, I as the Petitioner interpret that decree to mena that all monies owed as of DEc 31 need to be paid prior to my taking the child as an exemption, the ex interprets this to mean that I have to pay all CS by Dec 30 (courthouse closed on 12/31) in order to take the exemption.

4.  Lastly, if the last date paid for the year was on 12/31 and the money sent out on that same date - would there be a grace period that would be acceptabe for the above passage, ie the monies paid FRiday 12/31 and accounted for by THursday of the next week?

Thanks Soc!

[socrateaser]

>Questions:
>
>1.  who is responsible for the payments after I have "paid"
>them in my paycheck?

Ultimately, you are responsible until the check gets cashed at the other end. You can sue everyone along the way whose actions may have harmed you, but it doesn't relieve you from liability for the payment.

>2.  What is the actual date paid?

The date paid is the date that the payment is received by the support obligee.

>
>3.  Given the divorce decree quoted above, I as the Petitioner
>interpret that decree to mena that all monies owed as of DEc
>31 need to be paid prior to my taking the child as an
>exemption, the ex interprets this to mean that I have to pay
>all CS by Dec 30 (courthouse closed on 12/31) in order to take
>the exemption.

Assuming that you are asking for my interpretation, it is, that if you are current with all support payments for all previous years, as of 12/31 in any individual year, then you are entitled to the exemption.
>
>4.  Lastly, if the last date paid for the year was on 12/31
>and the money sent out on that same date - would there be a
>grace period that would be acceptabe for the above passage, ie
>the monies paid FRiday 12/31 and accounted for by THursday of
>the next week?

This is what is known in the law as "de minimis non curat lex," which is latin for "The law does not deal with trifles." If your payments are being regularly and routinely made by your employer, and there is no unreasonable lapse in the consistency of those payments, then no judge in the U.S. would say anything other than that you have reasonably complied with the court orders.

If the other parent wants to try to play with that deadline, and you are denied the exemption as a consequence, then I believe that would be contempt of court, and you should be able to have the court force the other parent to sign the appropriate paperwork to return the exemption to you, or if the IRS refuses to adjust your account, then you would get credit for your losses as from the other parent as a sanction for willful violation of the court orders.

Tell the other parent to take some Zoloft and chill out.

[wysiwyg]

LOL on the Zoloft - she IS on Zoloft!  

As far as the other, the employer failed to make payments for 9 weeks then when he did his books he recognized his error and paid all monies to the court, they got posted 3 Business days later, but that was in the first ofthe year, BM refused to sing the IRS forms and I suppose we both claimed the exemption.  THis made a differnece of what was owed to teh IRS of $2,500 for us.  I took the exemption.  The part I do not understand was why the BM NEVER said a word to me about it, my current wife believes that her actions of with holding that info for her benefit instead of the child support for the childs benefit is not going to go over well with a judge.  What is your feeling on this?

The employer had been regularily making payments from July to November but had that laspe from mid November to the end of DEc.  BEfore that we had regularily made payments via income with holding and personal payments and were always overpaid.

Thanks again.

[socrateaser]

>LOL on the Zoloft - she IS on Zoloft!  
>
>As far as the other, the employer failed to make payments for
>9 weeks then when he did his books he recognized his error and
>paid all monies to the court, they got posted 3 Business days
>later, but that was in the first ofthe year, BM refused to
>sing the IRS forms and I suppose we both claimed the
>exemption.  THis made a differnece of what was owed to teh IRS
>of $2,500 for us.  I took the exemption.  The part I do not
>understand was why the BM NEVER said a word to me about it, my
>current wife believes that her actions of with holding that
>info for her benefit instead of the child support for the
>childs benefit is not going to go over well with a judge.
>What is your feeling on this?

Irrelevant. The judge doesn't enforce IRS regulations, that's the Federal gov's job.