Independent Contractors and Child Support

One of the issues that we confront on a regular basis getting child support paid.  Typically, when W2 employee the domestic relations section can have an Order issued and wages garnished.  Even though there may still be issues with obtaining expenses the payee sill has the relatively firm knowledge that the base child support amount will be paid.  Not so for the individuals that have the unfortunate problem of being paid by an independent contractor.  There is no garnishment for independent contractors and thus, there is no real surety of payment.  Moreover, there is a constant battle with independent contractors and proprietorships in Court with regard to how much money is actually being made by the payor – as they constantly attempt to hide income and or argue that their total income should be reduced.  We have seen ridiculous allegations where gross receipts of a contractor can be in the $150,000.00 range where the contractor alleges net profits of less than $30,000.00.  These individuals will do anything to avoid payment of their fair share of child support.

Moreover, although there are statutes on the books which compel payment, they are difficult to enforce in the Court system simply because most Judges do not want to fairly enforce them.  Most of the time the Judges do not want to use the enforcement weapons that they have available to them.  They don’t want to jail the individual simply because a person in jail can not earn money to pay child support.  Moreover, a person with a missing license can not drive to work.  Mostly what we see occurring is that the individuals let their payment responsibilities lie fallow until they are hauled into Court and then they pay just enough to get them out of immediate threat until they are hauled into Court again.  This isn’t good enough.

There should be some legislation which allows the Court system and Domestic Relations to have access to the bank accounts of independent contractors and or proprietorships   One suggestion is legislation that would compel the payor to provide access to the bank accounts of the contractor in order to have money garnished from the account if the payor does not pay.  There could be a series of tools for domestic relations to use if the money is not paid. 

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