Annual Review question - child support (cs)

F

first timer

New member
I had a cs underpayment in 2013 which I paid in addition to my determined cs amount in 2014. My question is: when there is an underpayment from the previous year (2013) and it gets paid in the following year (2014) does the underpayment get added to or subtracted from the total cs paid in 2014 for the purposes of the annual review?
 
I'm not an accountant, but it seems to me that if you owe CS from a previous tax year, the CS belongs to the year for which it was owed, not the year in which it was paid. So I would say that you can't count money which you should have paid in 2013 towards your 2014 CS obligations, if that's what you're asking.
 
(In other words, the CS that should have been paid in 2013 is completely outside your annual review calculations, which should include only the amount which should have been paid in 2014).
 
thanks stripes for your feedback; its my first time with an underpayment, it wasn't much - less than a 100 dollars - still better to know what gets counted and what doesn't for the annual review
 
I'm curious... are you retroactively adjusting the payments each year, to account for the fact that you don't know what 20xx income is until the end of 20xx?
e.g.
2015 CS = table amount for 2015 estimated income +/- adjustment for 2014 actual income?

If yes, was this something you agreed to (on your own, or thru lawyers/mediation), or was ordered by a judge?
 
Dinky - Our separation agreement contains clauses which require us to annually exchange income tax info for child support purposes. This one is completed in June and the new amount starts in July and is good until Dec (6 cs cheques are written to recipient covering July to Dec - including any over/under payments). We do an income update at the end of Dec based on our last pay stub for year end. If there are income changes, the cs amount gets updated and is good until June again. (6 cheques are written to recipient covering Jan to Jun). We agreed to do it this way rather than the norm of once per year where 12 cheques are written to the recipient covering July to June. It keeps the child support amount in line with our incomes. My ex wanted it this way to minimize the occurrence and effect of overpayments on her household which had occurred in the past.
 
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it seems it doesn't matter as the amount paid over the years will be the same in both cases, so it is simply a technicality. In this case there is no "right" or "wrong" way of doing it. Just ask your ex which way she prefers, agree whatever he/she chooses and close the issue.
Doesn't matter what advice you get here, if your ex don't agree with it you might be up for a multi thousand dollar legal issue over $100, which is paid anyways.
 
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