An acquaintance of mine (no it's not me) owes back child support to the mother of his children. He doesn't earn much money each year -- maybe about $5,000 to $6,000 per year doing seasonal work for landscaping and lawn care companies. He didn't file any tax returns for 2013, and maybe not for 2012 either (I would have to ask him about 2012). And, he hasn't filed his 2014 tax returns yet. He lives and works in New Jersey.
His question is, if he goes ahead and files his tax returns for 2014, 2013, and probably 2012, will any federal refund to which he may otherwise be entitled be withheld due to his unpaid back child support payments?
My thought, of course, is that whether any refund would be withheld or not, he should still file his tax returns so he wouldn't have an IRS problem. Then, even if any refund that he would otherwise get was withheld and went toward back child support, that would be better than leaving the money with the federal government -- it would go toward support of his kids.
Since his tax returns would be very simple to do, I think that I could help him do them and file them online using one of the free tax prep and filing programs such as TaxHawk etc. Obviously, I am not an accountant or a bookkeeper and I don't to tax returns for people. But, I could show him how to do his own returns and get them filed without him having to pay a tax preparer.
Or, if the IRS was not going to withhold any refunds to which he may be entitled, maybe he could just go to any tax preparation company and have them do his returns and deduct their fee from any refunds that he would get.
So, again, his question is, if he goes ahead and files his tax returns for
2014, 2013, and probably 2012, will any federal refund to which he may otherwise be entitled be withheld due to his unpaid back child support payments? I assume that any New Jersey state tax refund would get withheld due to unpaid back child support because he lives in New Jersey.Thanks.