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How much time will the non custodial parent be given to pay a modest amount of arrears?
Anonymous7 views3 answers
At the hearing for establishing permanent support, the non custodial parent was ordered to also pay $6000 of arrears. Payment of arrears could be paid over time and added to the monthly amount of the support payment. How much time will the parent be given to pay back the amount? The parent who is required to pay has a salary of $140,000 a year. Is it possible that the arrears due could be divided over more than ten years and only increasing the montly support payment by a very modest amount of $50 or something similar?
If the parties cannot come to an agreement regarding the monthly amount of arrears, the court has the discretion to determine what the monthly payment towards arrears. However the Court is unable to go above 25% of what the monthly child support obligation is (i.e. if the monthly child support is $100 his arrears would not be able to be more than $25 (unless agreed upon otherwise by the two of you)).
In addition to what my colleague has previously stated, it is not uncommon for taxes to be intercepted and given to the spouse who is owed the child support. So, while he/she may only pay $25/month (as is the hypothetical above) in arrears per month, they may lose their tax refund up to the amount owed (assuming that they will ultimately receive a tax refund). If this were to happen, clearly the arrears would be paid off much sooner than they would be if the paying party only paid $25/month.
Evan (as always) is correct and so is Josh. But neither kind of got to the "nut" of your question. Typically the amount added to the monthly amount is fairly low in my experience, usually ten or more % but not often more than 20%. Examples: Monthly is $375, extra $50 for arrears. Monthly is $800, $100 extra for arrears. That is typically where it ends up in my experience though many of the folks I see do not make 140k annually, so perhaps his would be more. I would also say they normally will establish that extra amount at the same time they establish the ongoing monthly amount so I am not sure why that wasn't done in your case, perhaps you or your attorney didn't ask?
