Can i fime a joi t return with my wife if i pay child support from payroll deduction?

[dnjkirschenmann]

Me and my wife are legally married, with no legal seperation in place. I pay chikd support to her which comes directly feom my paycheck. Can we stilk fime a joint return?

[Opus 17 · Accepted solution]

As long as you are legally married as of December 31, and assuming you both agree, you can file a joint return.  You may need to discuss ahead of time how any refund or amount owed will be divided.  

And of course, child support is never tax deductible to the payer and is never taxable to the recipient, so the fact that you are paying support does not really affect your tax position at all, whether filing jointly or separately.

[dnjkirschenmann]

Thank you very much!

[dnjkirschenmann]

What if there is some back supoort due? Would that come out of the return?

[Opus 17]

Possibly.  But since it's a joint return, it's both of your money and whatever was taken out as an offset would just go to her anyway.  If you have a court order to pay support, and you are in arrears, the state MAY have sent the debt to the federal government for collection.  Usually they will notify you by mail when this happens or is about to happen.  To find out if the debt was sent to the BFS for collection, you should contact the state agency that is responsible for the debt, or contact the BFS.
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc203">https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc203</a>

[dnjkirschenmann]

Thank you for the quick response. They are taking extra payments on top of my normal to oay the back support. There was only back support from the time she filed, til it started coming out of my check, so isnt very much. Dont think its i  collections, but ill def check to be sure. Thanx again!