Child Support Withholding Is Never Child’s Play for Employers

A child support enforcement director advised payroll professionals March 18 on how to meet their child support withholding obligations in light of potential employee complications. A good rule of thumb is to follow the order as best as possible.

Employees have many ways of inconveniencing employers trying to comply with a child support order. One example provided by a payroll professional involved an employee who divorced from his wife in Colorado and subsequently moved to Florida. The employer received a partially completed Colorado income withholding order for child support but did not know whether they had to comply with it.

State child support agencies have the authority to send income withholding orders across state lines, said Konitra Jack, Esq., child support enforcement director for the state of Louisiana. However, employers should contact the applicable state child support agency if they have any questions or if the order itself does not look “regular on its face.” If the order is missing key information, for example, the order would not be regular on its face and should be returned, she said, speaking at PayrollOrg’s Capital Summit.

Sometimes, employees make statements to employers that put the validity of an income withholding order into question, she added. Employees might say they have no knowledge about owing child support, that the child being supported is not theirs, that a state has no right to issue the order, and even that they are not the individual identified on the order.

“All of those are ways that they can contest in the court of law.” But, she said, “It does not affect an income assignment order until after they contest it. So, the order continues to run until after they get the court to say that it can stop.”

Another payroll professional cited a case in which an employee told his employer that the court authorized him to send his child support payments directly to the custodial parent because he and his former spouse had an amicable divorce. The employee claimed that, although the employer already received an income withholding order, the employer should not take action because the employee will send payment directly to the custodial parent.

When an employer withholds child support from an employee’s wages, the employer typically remits the payment to the applicable state disbursement unit in accordance with the income withholding order, Jack said. The state disbursement unit then forwards the amount to the custodial parent or guardian of the child.

Jack advised that the employer in this case should comply with the income withholding order regardless of the employee’s statements to the contrary. Any order saying that payment should be made to the custodial parent instead of the state disbursement unit would not be regular on its face, she said.

Sending a payment directly to a custodial parents poses additional recordkeeping challenges for employers, Jack explained. If a custodial parent ever fails to receive a payment, the parent would likely contact the employer, not the child support agency. By sending payments to the state disbursement unit, the state becomes responsible for recordkeeping.

Employers can contact state child support agencies with any questions by using the federal child support portal, she said. There are 54 child support agencies, and each one has assigned staff to monitor the portal and answer inquiries.

“One of the newest things in the portal is the message center,” she said. “You can go to the message center and send a message to that specific state. And whoever is assigned in that state to receive [messages] will receive a notice directly through the portal.”