{"id":3696,"date":"2018-10-12T13:50:26","date_gmt":"2018-10-12T20:50:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jacksonwhitelaw.com\/arizona-family-law\/?page_id=3696"},"modified":"2022-12-01T12:45:46","modified_gmt":"2022-12-01T19:45:46","slug":"how-to-stop-child-support-from-taking-tax-refund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jacksonwhitelaw.com\/arizona-family-law\/blog\/how-to-stop-child-support-from-taking-tax-refund\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Stop Child Support from Your Taking Tax Refund in Arizona"},"content":{"rendered":"
When the Arizona Department of Child Support Services moves to seize your federal or state tax refund (known as \u201coffsetting<\/a>\u201d), you should receive advance notice of the proposed seizure. For federal income tax offsetting, the notice will come from the Financial Management Service<\/a>, a division of the US Department of Treasury. For state income tax offsetting, the notice will come from the Arizona Department of Revenue<\/a>.<\/p>\n You should take action as soon as you receive a notice from either of these agencies. Hopefully there has been a mistake, and you can contest the proposed offsetting. At the very least, you may be able to minimize the impact of an unavoidable tax refund seizure. In rare situations where there\u2019s nothing that you can do to minimize the proposed offset, you can at least take preventative measures to ensure future tax refund offsets have less of an impact on your income.<\/p>\n If you are expecting a substantial tax refund and the proposed offset will affect wipe out most\u2014if not all\u2014of the refund, you may want to consult with a family law attorney. You\u2019ll need to weigh the value of the potential refund against the cost of hiring an attorney, but if there is a way to save your tax refund from the proposed offset it could be well worth the extra cost.<\/p>\n If you dispute the amount of child support arrears owed, you can request an administrative review of the proposed offset. To be successful, you\u2019ll need to provide sufficient evidence that the proposed offset exceeds the amount of child support arrears. This should be relatively easy to prove with a recent child support arrears statement.<\/p>\n Alternatively, if the custodial spouse is not a recipient of TANF<\/a> benefits, you may be able to stop the offset on the grounds that the amount of child support arrears does not qualify for an income tax offset. The law stipulates that the state can only seek an income tax offset if the arrears are $5,000 or more, so if your child support arrears are less than this amount the government cannot seize your income tax returns.<\/p>\nRequest an Administrative Review<\/h2>\n
File an Injured Spouse Allocation Form<\/h2>\n