Taxation Requires More Than a Genius Mind

Steven, my x-husband, called me yesterday to tell me him and his wife filed their tax return. They filled out a paper that diverts his wife's portion of the return to her and his portion to me. (His return is automatically seized and sent to me every year because of back child support-he owes +$15,000). Apparently the tax company 'forgot' to file this form, so he paid $80 (boo-hoo) to file it and is hoping the IRS will process it. Anyway, the reason he called is because if I receive his return, which I probably will, then he wants me to send it back to him. (I'm laughing histarically to myself at this point.) Apparently, most of it is because of his wife's income-or lack of-and their two children. So he was hoping that since we've been on such good terms lately, I would consider his circumstances and send it back to him if I get it. (They were planning on receiving it this month and using it to pay their mortgage that they are way behind on. Uh, isn't that what financial planning is for?) Anyway, his portion is supposedly $250, which would be sent to me. But out of the kindness of his heart, and after talking with his wife, they were planning on sending me another $1,000 to be nice. HA! Do I sound like an idiot on the phone or something? Last I checked, I was a pretty intelligent person with a very unintelligent, unreliable, unmotivated x-husband. I'm very proud of myself though. I was very polite and quiet and told him that we’ve always known we were getting his return. And that due to his lack of consistency and child support payments, I really hadn't planned on doing such a thing. If the IRS decides that he gets his wife's portion, then great. But if not, sorry Charlie-you're just out of luck.

He hung up on me once he realized my stand on the issue.

Now understand this. If I receive his return, it will automatically be deducted from his back child support balance. If I send it back to him, it wouldn't credit back to his balance and he would get out of paying $5,000 of it. Hmm...don't think so. Besides, even if the IRS sends his wife her portion of the money, it wouldn't be what he is thinking. Since two of the children are his, most of the EIC credit (pgs. 51-58) would reflect on his income since he made more of the income than her. From what he's said before, she hardly worked at all last year. So the only reason they would have qualified for such a big credit is because their combined income was around +/-$16,000 (top of the pyramid-see above link for a chart layout), and his income bumped them up to that point. Duh. (Side note here. They lived off the TANF program for the last two years, which is probably why his income is so low.) She didn't earn the EIC, he did. I've done my own taxes for the last six years and was a single mother eligible for this credit long enough to know all of this. I'm sorry that his taxes have a lien on them every year and that the state of Washington is trying to seize his property in order to pay his balance. I’m sorry that he has been served papers stating that he could serve 3-5 years in prison from lack of payments and that he will be put on the “Most Wanted” web site for child support. I’m sorry that the Oklahoma Child Support Enforcement Agency has suspended his WA license. I'm sorry that he finally got married last December (after having two daughters together) in order to gain the "married-filing jointly" status, hoping to receive a big fat return (by the way, thanks :P. This will make a nice investment for my CD account). I'm even sorry that his wife gets her car and property seized as well, even though she's known for the 3+ years of their relationship that he has two children that he never takes care of. I really wouldn't wish their grief on anybody. I didn't ask for enforcement to take effect until after he finally contacted me (after 2 1/2 years) and still refused to keep a job long enough to make more than two payments. I mean really, how difficult is it to hold down a job and support a family? I think I've changed jobs twice since our six years of divorce. And really, how many times did he expect to go 13 consecutive months without making any payments? Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I said 13-and on two different occasions. I really am not that hard on him. I mean hey, I could always go after him for the health insurance and daycare he is supposed to pay for. But I guess I'll give him a break on that one for now.