Child Support ?

Yup, yup, YUP: Family Practice Attorney (possibly State Bar or State Family Court website FAQ for THAT state - each count it differently) is DEFINITELY the way to go to CYA and get solid answers on that question. Cool deal being of the mind to understand that child support is YOU supporting your kids no matter how the ex spends money, though. It's a YOU and your KIDS thing; she's just the one to get it because they are underage. Think about it like this:

All the income over there is one dollar bills (mind OUT of gutter please). It all goes into a bucket. Your child support included. A bucket full of one dollar bills. Everytime a need arises (grocery, lights, hot water, heat, shoes for the kids, party time for ex, the head, a new dew, gas in the car - whatever - for anyone) a hand goes into that bucket and pulls enough one dollar bills out to pay for it. All the one dollar bills are all mixed up in the bucket as to which came from exactly where. She may or may not spend a bunch of money on partying or whatever. But if she does; who knows if that was the child support money? Exactly which dollar bills came from which source is not known to anybody. They are all just dollar bills in a bucket and not marked where they came from and earmarked to be only spent on certain things. That would be ideal, but it's not reality.

So, in the end; if the kids needs are being met and you are paying child support: smile - you are doing well and right. I totally get not overpaying but that's a Legal question for an attorney, and if you are overpaying then guess who benefits? The rugrats you'd jump in front of a train for; so no harm, no foul. Now if you are paying child support like you're supposed to and the kids are lacking - well; time to have a SERIOUS conversation with some Legal Eagles about more than just child support. LOL.

 

Here's another point to ponder. My daughter was already covered under her mom's health insurance so I was only on the hook for her share. Had she not been, Texas would enroll her in Medicaid which would add $350 a month to the support payment.

 

Totally valid point. Especially with the changes in healthcare and requirements we all be covered somehow. I'm lucky; there's nothing in the legal docs about healthcare coverage, it was a total oversight by the courts and attorneys. It should have been in there, but it wasn't and in SC we have CHIPRA (a kids health insurance program - basically for folks that are not well off but don't qualify for Medicaid; you basically buy Medicaid for the kids for like $12 a month per kid) fully funded by Obamacare. I don't like it worth a hoot (Obamacare), because I just flat out don't like being told what I HAVE to do by the Feds. But I will admit that it did fund a State Program for low cost insurance on my kids. My now wife's insurance coverage? Different story and mods - I'm staying OUT of the whole healthcare reform thing.

Point being: You may or may not be at a net financial benefit by paying a little more in cash child support due to a miscalculation about per diem and your children being on a State Program for healthcare insurance and you not "stirring the pot" than if you toted the whole deal. Really, a Family Attorney can tell you these things as to how it works in your particular State a whole lot better than we can with anecdotal based laymen's advice.

Not trying to be rude or off-putting but the consequences of a screw up with ANYTHING related to ANY form of child support are jail and a suspended driver's license (including your CDL) so you really do need professional, specialized legal advice and not a bunch of us roadrunners telling you this or that. Other than "get a local lawyer" LOL.

 

I believe a discussion of the pros and cons of Child Support would be better off in the Politics Section of this Board. And I am saying that as a man who went to Prison for failure to pay child support to my son while he was in Basic Training with the US Army.

We all have our opinions but we don't always have all the facts.

 

Shut the #### up are you a truck driver? And not all OTR truck driver make good money you kno what we go thru out there and not all father's don't take care of there kids not because you get put on child support you don't take care of ur kids it's the ##### ### mothers out there that wanna be mean and do it..

 

Sorry for the sidebar...

chicknwing-
Box 13 should list your contributions to a retirement plan, and sometimes 3rd party sick pay (short term disability insurance such as Aflac). If your employer is listing per diem payments in box 13, that could be a problem. Or it may not I'm not a tax pro.
I'm not a tax expert, so you should double check with a tax pro and your employer about what should be listed in box 13. It could be fine.
It is my understanding that per diem is generally only listed on a W2 when an employer pays more than what the IRS allows for a standard detuction. So if the IRS says the per diem for transportation workers is $59 but an employer pays $75, then $16 should be reported as income ($75-$59 = $16). Box 12 would be used to report the substantiated amount (the IRS standard per diem rate) of $59 and the extra $16 would be included as gross income. But I THINK box 12 would only be used IF the employer is reimbursing per diem expenses that are greater than the standard (substantiated) IRS rate.

BUT.... I only learned this while trying to figure out if per diem amounts should/could/would be included on W2 forms.
I don't mean to imply that I know these things without a doubt. Only that you might want to confirm what is being reported in Box 13 of your W2.

My sources:
IRS website (General Instructions for Forms W-2 and W-3): http://www.irs.gov/instructions/iw2w3/ch01.html (do page search for per diem)
IRS (Common Errors): http://www.irs.gov/Retirement-Plans/Common-Errors-on-Form-W2-Codes-for-Retirement-Plans
The Nest: http://budgeting.thenest.com/per-diem-w2-reporting-24643.html

 

Stories like these make me glad I never married.