Paying Child Support with Cash
April 19th, 2011You should never pay your child support in cash! The simple reason is that you cannot trace cash payments.
If there is a court order for child support that’s requiring you to pay x amount in child support and you pay cash, who’s to say you actually paid it? And in several years, how will you remembered if you’ve paid every single payment or if you’re missing a few? If the other parent sues you for unpaid child support, how are you going to prove that you actually paid?
The best way to pay child support is through automatic wage assignment by the Department of Revenue (DOR). In Massachusetts, the DOR has a special division called the Child Support Enforcement division that will automatically pull the right amount of child support from your paycheck and will make a note of it in their system. The DOR usually has an office in each county inside or near the Probate and Family Court whether you’re in Boston or Cambridge or Quincy. If you owe back child support, they will be able to calculate it in their system. Above all else, they will have documentation of every child support payment you’ve ever made so there can be no arguments about whether or not you actually paid child support.
The next best thing to paying your child support through the DOR is paying by check. At least if there’s ever a disagreement, you can track checks although this can be difficult forensic accounting if we have to go back many years.