Can Sacramento County Child Support Services take my Federal Tax Return if....?

In July of last year, my daughter's mother closed the child support case with the Sacramento County D.A.'s office so I could pay her directly. Which I have done every month. I have receipts and canceled checks to show for it. I found out today when I checked the status of my case that she went back on state aid in November of last year, without my knowledge. She claims it was only for a month, and that there was an error in their office. I have been paying her directly during this period of time. I changed employers shortly after she closed the original case, so the county had no current employer information for me. Since they couldn't garnish any wages, there is now a balance owed to the County of Sacramento for child support not paid into their system, owed because she was on state aid.

They have already seized my state return, can they take my federal return as well? If so, can I get that money back from them after I prove that I have been paying her directly all this time?

I was paid biweekly by my employer, the County took the money every pay period, but did not allocate it to my case until the end of the month. Two or three months a year I would have 3 garnishments, the others I would only have 2. Because of the way Sacramento County handles their books, I was being reported to the credit agencies as being delinquent, even though the money was being taken regularly. Paying her directly saved my credit report from being dinged every month.

It doesn't seem fair that I should be punished because she was dishonest with the system. Can I withhold future payments to her to recoup the money from her.

For the record, we have joint legal custody of our daughter. She spends an equal amount of time with both of us every week month, year. I never had the child support order adjusted after the custody arrangement was established. I was trying to be nice to my daughter's mother.

I'd talk to your lawyer about this one. If the court order says that you have to pay through the County, you might not be allowed to just bypass them and pay directly, and still save your tax refund.

Good luck.

Yes, they can take it and no you won't get your money back because you should have known to pay it directly to the child support agency.

I don't know how you should have known to pay it directly to the state agency if nobody had informed you. Chances are, it'll be very difficult to get any money back from the state.
If she was only on public assistance for one month, and you don't have an outstanding balance owed to her, then they may take only a small amount.
If you do owe back child support-even if it's to her and not the state- they may take that money and give it directly to her.
For some families, tax time is the only time they receive any child support at all.

my husband just went and filed his taxes in the state of Florida and he was also back with the state in child support .they took all of his tax money and applied to the pending amount of money owed to the state. so now that they found you and are garnishing your wages they now have you in the system so threes no way to get your money back and they will keep doing so every year when you file you taxes until the full amount is payed up ...but when they do just look on the bright side of things and be glad that you are able to make such a big payment on the amount due to make ends meet in that area once again its a fast way to get payed up ... Good luck to you !!