As Colorado residents have recently paid their income taxes, many are eagerly anticipating receiving their tax refund. For some, this is an important aspect of their finances and they use the money for basic needs. However, if there is an issue with delinquent child support and the receiving parent has not gotten the necessary payments, a federal tax refund offset could lead to a person’s tax refund being taken to pay the past due child support. There are important points about this that must be understood.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Child Support Services (CSS) and Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) work cooperatively to collect this child support. If the amount owed is $150 or more, then the federal tax refund can be intercepted. It can also intercept the state tax refund if there are payments owed. For people who would like to avoid having their income tax refund intercepted, they need to pay the child support they are said to owe.
In some cases, the spouse who is receiving the child support payments from the income tax offset earned some of the money. If so, then the paying spouse has the right to get some of it back if it is shown to be his or hers. People might have had their refunds offset even if the child support they owed was paid. If that happens, the time of year could be why this happened. There are no updates from mid-November to mid-December, so if the payments were made in that time, then the IRS might not be aware of it.
For people who are paying child support or are receiving child support and are in a dispute about the payments, it is possible that the income taxes – state and federal – can be offset to catch up on what is owed. If there is a child support dispute, a legal professional can help either the supporting parent or the receiving parent with a case.
Source: childsupport.state.co.us, “Tax Refund Offset,” accessed on May 1, 2018