| Tax Considerations Relating to Child Support |
| For federal income tax purposes, payments of child support are not tax-deductible by the parent who makes the payments but child support is tax-free to the recipient. In order to qualify as child support, the amounts an ex-spouse receives must be designated as child support in the divorce or separation agreement. None of a payment that is lumped together as either family support or alimony is considered child support for tax purposes. In addition, family support or alimony is taxable to the recipient. More... |
| The Family Support Act of 1988 |
| The Family Support Act of 1988 amended the guidelines provisions of the Child Support Enforcement Amendments of l984 by requiring that a state's support guidelines operate as a ''rebuttable presumption'' of the correct support amount in any judicial or administrative proceeding for the award of child support. More... |
| Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act |
| In 1996, the Federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) was signed into law. PRWORA was enacted to increase efficiency in establishment, enforcement, and collection of child support obligations. The law requires all states to adopt the Uniform Interstate Support Act by January 1, 1998, eliminating the Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act (URESA) system.More... |
| International Adoption - Home Study |
| United States immigration laws require prospective parents to undergo a "home study" before they can adopt a child from a foreign country. A home study is an investigation into the prospective parents' fitness to raise an adopted child. A home study is conducted by an individual or agency that is licensed by the prospective parents' home state.More... |
| Post-Adoption Contact with Grandparents |
| Traditionally grandparents were generally assumed to have no legal standing to seek visitation or custody of their grandchildren over the objection of the children's parents. Occasionally, a court exercising the state's parens patriae power would place a child with a grandparent when a parent died, was abusive, or was otherwise incapacitated. When parental fitness had not been challenged, however, both common law and constitutional precedents supported the right of parents to determine whether or not their children could spend time with grandparents.More... |
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