What Happens If Your Parents Give You Money to Help You Pay Child Support?
When people grumble about child support, it is not because they do not take their parental responsibilities seriously. Most parents do not resent having to support their minor children financially. No one likes to have a judge bossing them around on behalf of their ex-spouse; that is where the resentment comes from. Despite the bitterness that can persist between former spouses over child support, judges endeavor to issue child support orders for amounts that are fair to both parents, orders that meet the children’s needs and accurately reflect the parents’ financial means. The good news is that, once the court issues the child support order, it will stay out of your business as long as you keep paying the ordered amount. It doesn’t matter if you stay at your current job, pick up gig work on the side, take on additional debts to meet your child support obligations, or even ask family members for help. It is your right to do this, although Florida case law includes at least one case where asking the children’s grandfather for help paying child support obligations backfired. If you are struggling to meet your child support obligations, contact a South Florida child support lawyer.
When Parents Support Their Married Sons and Daughters Financially
Many people still need financial help from their parents after they get married. If you get divorced, the financial support you got from your parents can affect your case in various ways. The court might treat monetary gifts from family members as separate property or as marital property, depending on when you received them or how you spent them. When determining the standard of living for which to aim when calculating alimony or child support, the court does not take gifts from parents into account. For example, if your in-laws funded much of your extravagant lifestyle while you were married, you might still have to pay alimony even if your in-laws have so much money that your ex-wife could depend on them without needing alimony from you. In the case of one work-averse woman, the court decided that the responsibility to support her should fall on her ex-husband, not her parents.
Granddaughters Take Offense to Grandpa Giving Dad Money to Pay Child Support
When Kristina and Kimberly’s parents divorced, the court ordered their father to pay child support to their mother. Rather than fall behind on his child support payments, the girls’ father asked his father for help. The girls’ grandfather took money out of the Uniform Transfers to Minors Act (UTMA) accounts he had set up for them when they were born. When the girls reached adulthood, they found out that their grandfather had taken money out of their UTMA accounts and given it to their father, they demanded that he reimburse the UTMA accounts for the amount he had taken out. The grandfather refused, arguing that it was no different from taking money out of the accounts to give as gifts to the girls. The granddaughters sued their grandfather, and the court ordered him to reimburse the UTMA accounts.
Contact Us Today for Professional Help
A Boca Raton child support lawyer can help you decide whether to try to modify your child support order or just think creatively about how to pay it. Contact Schwartz | White for more information.
Resources:
floridasupremecourt.org/content/download/338633/3011976/07-2221_JurisAns.pdf
scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=7975482500767898234&q=timothy+divorce&hl=en&as_sdt=4,10&as_ylo=2010&as_yhi=2021
