If Paid in Advance DHS Will Assume That Is a Gift
Video Transcribed: Can you pay child support in advance in Oklahoma? I’m Tulsa Family Attorney James Wirth, and I’m answering frequently asked questions regarding family law matters in Oklahoma. That’s the question I’ve got is, can I pay child support in advance?
My answer to that is you shouldn’t ever pay child support in advance, and I’ll tell you why. Anything you pay beyond your base child support payments … If you’ve got a monthly payment of 300 bucks a month, you pay 300 bucks a month, you’re going to want to note it on your check that it’s for child support, and that should be attributable to that current month child support.
Anything you pay above that should be allocated to anything you owe in back child support. If you pay anything above that, I can tell you that the powers that be at DHS are going to assume that that is a gift, and it is not going to be credited towards future child support.
The answer to the question is you should not ever advance child support. If you need to set it up so that it auto pays from a separate account, you can save that money aside, put it in a separate account, maybe earn a little interest on it, and then have it scheduled to where it’s paid out, but pay it in the month that it’s due is the best way to go.
In practice, if you did pay extra and you were very careful to document on the check and elsewhere that it’s for this specific child support in the future, you might get credit for that, but it’s not worth the trouble, because you may have to fight to get future credit for it, because the system is going to want to assume that it is a gift.
Anything you pay for the benefit of your child beyond what you’re required to is going to be considered a gift. You may not get future credit for that, so just don’t do it.
If you’ve got other questions about child support and need to talk to an attorney about it, you can talk to somebody in my office go to makelaweasy.com to discuss your child support in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
