17. Welcome back! Mistakes happen, right? What if I find out the other parent has not been paying for childcare even though I have been paying for my share?
Believe it or not, this actually happens! And as often as not, it happens by reason of inadvertence, as opposed to deception.
When a Child Support Order is entered, parents will often lump together child support with the proportionate share of health insurance and childcare. Remember back in Lesson 3 when we drew the bold red line on the worksheet to avoid confusion about a party's obligation to pay child support and the obligation to pay a proportionate share of childcare and health insurance expense? Here is where the confusion would set in had we not drawn that red line.
The worksheet actually encourages this oversight, in my judgment, as Line 13 at the bottom of the worksheet is the net amount actually paid, and many parties understandably consider that amount to be the “child support”. Thus, the red line I use to make sure that confusion will be avoided.
Regardless of whether by mistake or deceit, the law allows a full recovery of overpaid childcare expenses by a parent. In 2012, the Kentucky Court of Appeals addressed this very question in the case of Nosarzewski v. Nosarzewski, 375 SW3d 820 (Ky. App. 2012). The judge in that case went back 8 years and awarded the father more than $10,000 he had paid the mother for child care expense that had not been incurred. Even though there was no fraud in that case in the mother's acceptance of a monthly payment which included both child support and child care expense, she was ordered to pay the father back, and the Court of Appeals affirmed the trial judge.
So, now you know to check your records about child care expense!
Believe it or not, this actually happens! And as often as not, it happens by reason of inadvertence, as opposed to deception.
When a Child Support Order is entered, parents will often lump together child support with the proportionate share of health insurance and childcare. Remember back in Lesson 3 when we drew the bold red line on the worksheet to avoid confusion about a party's obligation to pay child support and the obligation to pay a proportionate share of childcare and health insurance expense? Here is where the confusion would set in had we not drawn that red line.
The worksheet actually encourages this oversight, in my judgment, as Line 13 at the bottom of the worksheet is the net amount actually paid, and many parties understandably consider that amount to be the “child support”. Thus, the red line I use to make sure that confusion will be avoided.
Regardless of whether by mistake or deceit, the law allows a full recovery of overpaid childcare expenses by a parent. In 2012, the Kentucky Court of Appeals addressed this very question in the case of Nosarzewski v. Nosarzewski, 375 SW3d 820 (Ky. App. 2012). The judge in that case went back 8 years and awarded the father more than $10,000 he had paid the mother for child care expense that had not been incurred. Even though there was no fraud in that case in the mother's acceptance of a monthly payment which included both child support and child care expense, she was ordered to pay the father back, and the Court of Appeals affirmed the trial judge.
So, now you know to check your records about child care expense!
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