[WayTooMuch]

All right, I need your experiences or advice:

I recently have support set up via Court orders to pay child support to the mother in Louisiana. Her lawyer recommends I pay the set support directly to the mother via personal checks by mail biweekly and keep the bank cashed checks as receipts.

Personally, I rather set up an account through the state of Louisiana Support enforcement Services so I know everything is ligit! Pros by doing this are many.

I did hear in some states where if the State is enforcing/collecting the support for a parent, that parent does not receive the full support amount due to fees for collect support. In my case, I'm not on the receiving end so I really don't care if the fees are applied.

Any of you out there can shed some light on what you would prefer? Better yet, if any of you are from Louisiana, which way are you doing?

Pay directly to the parent or pay to State support agency

[cdad]

Are you in Louisiana ? If your not and you would like it to come out of your paychecks then the court issuing the order can set that up for you. That way you have a permanent record of support going through and not just your word against hers. She could always turn it around and say you sent it as a gift since it is by personal check.

[Fr_Chuck]

Yes use the state agency.

While I paid mine direct I set up a specific bank account for nothing but those payments.

But in most cases I would recommend payig though the state

[WayTooMuch]

Thanks guys, my thoughts exactly! I am out-of-state from Louisiana. I like to pay directly to the State through income with-holding, that way it's tax deferred (pre-taxed dollars) also!

Another question, since the support order was set up by the mother's attorney with the Courts, the order was never sent to the State Support Enforcement Services (SES) to set up automatic debit through income withholding, can I do that on my own or the application for this type of service HAVE to come from the court?

I plan to give SES a call tomorrow to see if I (NCP) can set up an account with them and ask them to contact my employer to have income with-holding set up.

Thoughts?

[Fr_Chuck]

Give them a call and see what they say, I see no reason why you can't, was there not a default withholding agreement done when the custody order

[MomWontGiveUp]

Thanks guys, my thoughts exactly! I am out-of-state from Louisiana. I like to pay directly to the State through income with-holding, that way it's tax deferred (pre-taxed dollars) also!

Another question, since the support order was set up by the mother's attorney with the Courts, the order was never sent to the State Support Enforcement Services (SES) to set up automatic debit through income withholding, can I do that on my own or the application for this type of service HAVE to come from the court?

I plan to give SES a call tomorrow to see if I (NCP) can set up an account with them and ask them to contact my employer to have income with-holding set up.

Thoughts?

Sorry... but but I'm fairly certain that income withholding does not mean your child support comes out before taxes. You will be taxed on your gross income, regardless of your obligation to pay child support. The paying parent pays the tax and the receiving parent/child does not.

I pay through income withholding and am taxed on my full gross income. From everything I've read on tax with respect to child support, this is how it's done. I don't think it matters which state you're in. Perhaps someone in the area of tax expertise has a better explanation than mine.

I would think you'd have no trouble getting income withholding set up with the state. In the meantime, any of the personal checks that you send to your childrens' mother, I recommend writing along the bottom: Child Support July 2009 (for example). I did this for all personal checks I wrote before it went through the state and kept copies. Ultimately, I had to submit a letter of disagreement of arrears (once the state had it in their system, they had no record of my payments, so showed I owed a balance.) I prepared a spreadsheet of how much was ordered vs. how much had been paid and showed them that the balance was zero.