[thisradiosilence]

So its tax time and my girlfriend is dealing with her divorce from last year. They have a son. Regarding taxes, the divorce decree states:

IT IS ORDERED AND DECREED that if a refund is made for overpayment of taxes for any year during the parties' marriage through December 31, 2009, each party shall be entitled to one-half of the refund, and the party receiving the refund check is designated a constructive trustee for the benefit of the other party, to the extent of one-half of the total amount of the refund, and shall pay to the other party one-half of the total amount of the refund check...

Based on the decree snippet above, I could take this as saying that one-half of the TOTAL amount of the refund that my girlfriend received is owed to her ex. But it can also be argued that he should only receive half of what she received from her refund that only relates to child tax credits.

Here's what we do know. He changed his withholding status last year with the express purpose of not receiving a refund, so that he wouldn't owe her anything. She on the other hand, upped her withholding just to make sure she wouldn't owe anything. She also made far less than him last year, and also had student loan payments and other deductions and expenses that ended up with her receiving a pretty large refund check.

I mean based on this wording, she could have made a $10,000 charity donation last year and gotten a nice chunk back on her tax refund this year - and now owes him half of that. Is this right?

The decree is somewhat vague in this regard. Is there a loophole here that he too advantage of so that he doesn't owe her anything? And because she made far less than him, had more withheld, etc that she now owes him half of that? If she can't pay him 50% of her return now, could he take her to court and have a good chance of winning?

[cdad]

The decree is crystal clear. She owes him half. That's it. What you were trying to do is read something into it that wasn't there.