Best way to lower child support payment

[Gbyte]

Originally Posted by Unfair I can't claim the child on my income tax. The sheet I got from the friend of the court says I pay 73% of the child's estimated cost of living. However, for some reason the custodial parent gets the rights to claim the child regardless of how the money is split up. I can ask very nicely if the mother will ALLOW me to claim the child, but all she has to say is no...If the child spends 51% of their time with one parent, that parent claims the child unless an agreement is reached otherwise. Similarly, if I ask to lower child support, all she has to do is say no, and it doesn't get lowered. The mother has complete control over the situation.

Yes, the majority parent does get to claim the child on taxes. That is actually IRS rules (that can be overrode by a judge in some cases)- they were written to give parents that raise children a majority of the time a break. Can't say that's really fair to tax payers without children however...

If your paying 73% on an income of 49000 per year, that would assume she makes $1000 a month - about $6.30 per hour. What's the minimum wage in California? If I recall correctly, it's more than the national, though I could be wrong....

Originally Posted by Unfair From here forward we can all assume I raped her.

HAHAHA...

When it was YOU that was raped everyone was skeptical, but if you were to say that it was you that raped her, I bet the skepticisim would disappear and you'd have a bunch of angry people on your back.

Talk about equality, mmm?

- Brian

[lori509]

Originally Posted by Unfair I can't claim the child on my income tax. The sheet I got from the friend of the court says I pay 73% of the child's estimated cost of living. However, for some reason the custodial parent gets the rights to claim the child regardless of how the money is split up. I can ask very nicely if the mother will ALLOW me to claim the child, but all she has to say is no...If the child spends 51% of their time with one parent, that parent claims the child unless an agreement is reached otherwise. Similarly, if I ask to lower child support, all she has to do is say no, and it doesn't get lowered. The mother has complete control over the situation.

Yeah I know. At one point Spinmaster (a dad with custody) pointed something out. If you owe any kind of arrears then it benefits her to let you claim the kiddo. Basically she would get your taxes (which again like I said only takes a bite out of the crappy situation your in.. but hey, it's a nibble.)

Sorry I can't offer better advice. I agree with your quote where the court gives her all the power and I know that's pretty frustrating. (like with taxes and asking to lower it....)

You sound like your at the beginning of the battle (I could be wrong here...) and if a parenting plan has not been set up yet you can request of the court the right to claim the child on your taxes. The judge may give it to you or they may not. (My husband who has shared custody was awarded the tax right on his son even tho he was not the custodial parent.) The IRS does honor court documents concerning this - I've seen it first hand.

Originally Posted by lori509 (My husband who has shared custody was awarded the tax right on his son even tho he was not the custodial parent.) The IRS does honor court documents concerning this - I've seen it first hand.

I was told to send IRS form 8332 to the mother. The problem is that she's kinda mad at me for not marrying her after our one night stand. The combination of her having almost complete control over the financial situation and her being stubborn means I'm not likely to see any extra money.

I wrote a letter to the friend of the court to see if the right to claim the child as a dependant could be 'forcibly' transferred to me. No response on that yet, but they have been known to take up to two months to respond to an email. I tried calling but I always get the run-around. I spend 10 minutes pushing buttons to get to a real person, then I get transferred over and over until I get a voicemail, then I leave a message and never hear back.

Definately not going to get much help from FoC for the 2008 tax year, but maybe i'll find out in time for 2009.

[Gbyte]

Personally, unless you are raising the child a MINIMUM of 30% of the time (IRS says a parent has to have the child 51% of the time), I don't feel you should have the right to claim. The tax credits are meant for the parent raising the child. If you don't have significant invovlment raising the child, you aren't likely to get awarded the tax benefit.

It doesn't mean it's impossible, just unlikely if both parents are working.

Originally Posted by Gbyte Personally, unless you are raising the child a MINIMUM of 30% of the time (IRS says a parent has to have the child 51% of the time), I don't feel you should have the right to claim. The tax credits are meant for the parent raising the child. If you don't have significant invovlment raising the child, you aren't likely to get awarded the tax benefit. It doesn't mean it's impossible, just unlikely if both parents are working.

I can't help but get just a little defensive here - I'm paying $10,000/yr to this woman - TAX FREE (or rather I am the one paying the taxes on her income). The least she can do is give me a $1000 tax credit. I can barely afford to eat and put gas in the car that was GIVEN to me after my car got repo'd.

I suppose it confuses me why the IRS, an entity concerned entirely with income and where an individual's money goes, won't give the primary MONETARY supporter of the child the tax credit.

Making $45K per year I should be able to eat on a regular basis, but come the end of the pay cycle, there's always a day or two where I'm scrounging through the cupboards to find that last packet of Uncle Ben's rice that I've been wrinkling my nose at for the past two weeks.

[Gbyte]

So...you want a break on child support (understandable from your perspective).

When child support is figured, the $1000 tax credit is actually figured INTO the custodial parents income.

It's not about the monitary supporter, it's about the physical supporter.

If you recieved the tax credit every other year, her "income" would go down and your child support would go up. Basically, it'd erase itself.

[lori509]

I understand your perspective Gbyte except this line;...

"If you recieved the tax credit every other year, her "income" would go down and your child support would go up. Basically, it'd erase itself."

The idea I posed is based upon the idea that she is not working & thus, she cannot obtain a tax credit if she paid nothing into taxes and recieved no income but child support. (bold assumption on my part....) If that is the case she will actually get his income tax and it will help pay off any arrears he has.... She gets a couple grand, he gets a couple grand taken off his arrears. I'm not arguing that "he should" or "she should" be able to claim the child. I'm simply arguing that in the case that she is not working it behooves both of them to allow him to claim the child.

[Gbyte]

Heck...IF she's NOT working, that is a totally different story.

[lori509]

that's cool that was my original assumption... (I kind of got she was not working from his original post but I could be wrong...)