Not Paying Child Support: Legal Penalties

Even if you do not always have the money to make your child support payments, you are required by law to do so. Parents who are negligent when paying support risk not only harming their children, but imposing legal sanctions on themselves as well.

Depending on what state you call home, there are different penalties ranging in degree for failure to pay child support. For example, one Amendment allows the IRS to garnish wages, or remove the amount needed for child support, from income taxes each year. This will only happen to those parents who have failed to make payments during a tax year and the IRS must be petitioned to garnish the wages.

Even if a parent lives in another state, people can work with that state's child support department to force the parent to pay any monies that are due. This is due to the fact that paying child support is a legal requirement once a judge authorizes a support order.

Should parents come to believe that the amount they are paying is unfair, it is their responsibility to speak to the court. With a Raleigh family law attorney at their side, parents can request to have payments altered under the right circumstances, but are not advised to just stop making child support payments every month.

Have you stopped paying child support because you can no longer afford to make payments? Contact a Raleigh child support lawyer from our team immediately to seek legal representation as you may be facing legal ramifications for your failure to pay.