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I had a client in the exact same situation. Custody was shared but mom had them more, making her custodial parent. Mom made big bucks, three or four times what dad made, plus dad had other kids. Mom pays child support to dad, even though she has more custody.

Nobody here thought anything contrary to this.

Just found another program that did a much better job, Nuance Power PDF Standard. It created the fields better with a larger font AND made the square boxes "checkable" with a click. Now I just need to get ATX to make the Yes/No boxes on the questionnaire square so they too are check boxes.

According to court documents. there is absolutely no doubt that the payments are designated as child support and that they terminate when each child reaches 19. There is no mention in the docs about alimony or spousal support. The mystery is why? Is there some benefit to somebody somehow?

If ATX Server will not start, delete this folder: C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\CCH_Small_Firm_Services I watch tech support do this once and saved it to a text file.

For the most part, (and you *must* read the docs to be sure) anything that is tied specifically to child expenses and/or expires when a child reaches a specific milestone (age 18, graduation from high school, leaves the private school, whatever) is considered child support. Alimony can NOT be tied to child milestones. But I am not a lawyer and don't even play one on television - and these things can change from state to state, as well. So check with an in-state attorney and check those court documents!

A.M. P.M.

Seeing as how my ex always had issues meeting those things, even though she was working as well, is the very basis for my "issue" with how she was spending my child support money. I spent more money helping keep those things current for my children. I do not begrudge spending any money to take care of my children. I just wish there was a device in place to make her as responsible for spending the money as there was to make sure I paid it. Unless you have been there, you have no idea.

If child support is spent for rent, utilities, food, etc. it is also for the children. It provides a comfortable home for the children.

I think they are trying to fabricate a loss. Purchased inventory for $150K but it is worth $40K. Sounds fishy to me. Follow rfasset's advice and make them document the loans.

I just wish that I, as the non-custodial parent, had some rights to be certain that my child support was actually spent on my children. I paid faithfully and timely for 11 years. I KNOW she did not spend it on my children like she should have, but was powerless to do anything. Rant over.

Now that's a beautiful thing! I will try to add the Schedule C pages and Schedule E pages as I have several of those folks. Thanks for all the hard work and especially for sharing!

The odd thing about this is that the custodial parent is paying the noncustodial parent and calling it child support. If this was their attempt, or their attorney's, at keeping this from being alimony, they certainly didn't have to call it child support. According to tax law, even if it otherwise qualified as alimony, the payments are not alimony for tax purposes as long as they both sign a written agreement or include that in the divorce or separation agreement stating that the payments aren't deductible as alimony by the payer and aren't includable in the income of the recipient. The above is for agreements post-1984. Different rules were in place for pre-1985 agreements.

Child support payments are not taxable and are not deductible by the paying party. Period, end of statement. This is not new.

Rita, that is not the case. The client was told by the atty that the CS pmts were Not taxable.

The lawyer may have the taxability of child support and alimony mixed up. I corrected an attorney about that one time. Also had one to tell me there would be no taxable consequence to my client if she cashed her non-retirement account to give cash to her husband in the property settlement. It was one-third profit! I told him, no, that's not correct, you just have the judge put hubby's name on the part of the account he gets.

Rita, I understand what you are saying and agree with the extra fees, but I'd still charge the extra fees to review the court documents which I feel sure would show the payments the client is receiving is alimony...and my gut feeling is as Catherine suggested that the "alimony-child support" payments might run out after the children are of legal age, which still wouldn't make alimony taxable income to the client. However, I'd consider it part of my job I'm being paid to perform is to make sure NOW my client wouldn't get bit in a couple of years. Seems like someone has cooked up a scheme to deduct private school tuition on a Federal tax return by claiming "alimony".......one local attorney is rather insane with his tax advice to his clients. Again, this smells fishy and if we can all smell it, I wouldn't want IRS thinking I dismissed (without research) the possibility of taxable alimony payments as child support especially when my client is not the custodial parent. But either way, the extra fees are in order! :)

Or, you could just explain that he needs to be sure, then if he insists it's child support, go with child support. If it's not, you'll find out, and be sure to charge for reading the five-page letter from IRS. And charge to check the IRS calculations. Maybe just do an amended return to be sure IRS considered everything. Yes, I'm being a little facetious, but if he's telling you wrong, he's sure to get caught cause she's deducting it and providing his name and SSN, so I might just take lay low on this one and let the agony of defeat run its course.

If the client gifts the daughter with the money for the system (watch gift limits for filing gift tax return), the daughter can then take the credits.