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Payroll Deduction for Child Support

Is payroll deduction used to collect child support?

In most cases where child support is ordered by the Court,  your child support payments will be deducted using a payroll deduction with your employer.   In any proceeding in which periodic payments of child support are ordered, modified, or enforced, the family courts will order that the employee’s income be withheld from the disposable earnings of the person owing child support.

Except in a case involving the Texas Attorney General’s Office, the court may provide, for good cause shown or by agreement of the parties, that the order to withhold income from the person’s paycheck shall not be delivered to an employer.   However, if the person owing the child support becomes in arrears for more than 30 days, or the amount owed in arrearages is more than the amount due for one month,  the party receiving the child support can request that the withholding order for child support be issued to the employer of the person obligated to pay child support.

The Courts also allow for the employer to withhold not only current child support amounts but may also include monies owed for any child support arrears that have not been paid and usually includes interest on the unpaid amounts.   The additional amounts to be withheld for arrearages will be an amount sufficient to discharge those arrearages in not more than 2 years or an additional 20% added to the amount of current child support or whichever will result in the arrearages being paid off in the least amount of time.

If the person paying child support no longer has an obligation to pay regular child support, the court can also order that the person’s income be withheld for any outstanding arrearages and accrued interest on the arrearages in an amount sufficient to discharge those arrearages in not more than 2 years.

In some cases,  the person owed arrearages may agree with the person owing the arrearages to waive some or all of the arrearage amounts.  In that case,  the person must file an agreement with the Court or the Texas Attorney General’s Office stating in a legal document that some or all of the arrearages will be waived.   The person owing the arrearages will not have to pay the amounts that are waived.

In other cases, the courts will order that income is to be withheld from the disposable earnings of the obligor to be applied towards the satisfaction of any ordered attorney’s fees and costs resulting from an action to enforce child support.  An order under this provision is subordinate to an order or writ or withholding for child support and is subject to the maximum amount allowed to be withheld.

When the court orders a withholding for attorney’s fees,  the court shall order that the amounts for fees and costs be remitted directly to the person entitled to the ordered attorney’s fees or costs to be paid through the local child support office for payment to that person.

In Title IV-D cases, or Attorney General cases, the court will order that income be withheld for the earnings of the person owing child support and may not suspend, stay, or delay the issuance of the order or of a judicial or administrative writ of withholding.

In conclusion, if you are the obligor and you owe child support, more than likely you will have a withholding order issued to your employer for payment of child support obligation.

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