child support non-payment/hiding income

[findjoy81]

I believe my children's father is hiding money, actively, to avoid child support.

In the past 3 years, he has lost 2 salary jobs, and has since decided to start his own company.  He is running an LLC.

He has a modification order to the court that we will have trial on later, claiming to have not made any money since starting his company about 8 months ago. 

The problem is... 2 months ago he made a $40,000 payment on his house to save it from foreclosure (I know, because I'm still on the house loan despite the timeline for him to get me off it being past), he frequently has stacks of amazon packages on his doorstep - so many you can't even see the door (this, according to a neighbor), he just built a new shed in his backyard, he got new windows installed on his house, and he's refinishing the floors and counters in his kitchen, among other little things the kids have mentioned going/doing/getting with their dad.  And his business page shared some kind of recognition he got where he's quoted talking about how wildly successful he is (which truly, could be just PD posturing). 

For the record. Since the end of January, he has paid $5 in child support and said he had no income last month. 

Anyone have experience with this?  I'm documenting everything, but it is just so infuriating to have my children tell me that I'm stealing money from their dad - while I'm shouldering all the responsibility of before/after school care, insurance, medical bills, etc... with no assistance from him at all.  I'm scrimping and saving and donating plasma to pay for things, and he's doing all that.  I'm hoping all will crash down at some point...

[Poison Ivy]

I have limited personal experience with this. I was concerned that I might be ordered to pay maintenance to my ex-husband, and he was hiding income in the months between the filing for the and the granting of the divorce.  But he told me he wouldn't ask for maintenance and he did keep that promise.

I have one friend whose ex-husband didn't pay child support for years.  I don't think he was necessarily hiding income but he almost certainly was "underworking."  He is a lawyer and has some control over how much business he takes on.  Earlier this year, she finally was able to get a court order for him to pay back child support.  She was very grateful and relieved when that went through. 

I also look at most family law cases in my state that are public records, and I've seen that underreporting or hiding of income, especially by men, is pretty common.  Judges aren't sympathetic with these guys.  So keep documenting, and consider filing your own action to enforce the divorce judgment. 

[Rose1]

Yes but in Australia. I never got anywhere and was actually told that if he was hiding income tax dept would get their cut first. Can't see irs being any different.
I know he was but it was a game and he worked hard at it. In fact if he had worked as hard on providing for his kids and forming a relationship, but well that's why we're here.

My advice is to get yourself off the mortgage asap. Start looking at ways to be independent of him because money is an ongoing tool to play games. Can you get a lump sum settlement? Otherwise outperform him.

[Penny Lane]

Is his request that the judge lower child support because of his (alleged) decreased income?

In my state the standard is that you use the person's earning capacity rather than the amount they earn. I think to prevent precisely what you're describing. So DH is currently making a lot less than he did during the divorce but the child support situation assumes that higher income. If your state is similar he should have a really tough time arguing that his decision to start his own company should mean the kids miss out on his financial support. After all, that's what child support is - it's not like he's having to give you a gift, it's for the kids to get what they need. Like Poison Ivy said, my impression is that judges don't like to see this kind of shenanigan.

When DH was in court they both got access to each other's tax returns, bank statements, earning slips and a general "any other documents relating to your finances." Then they had to answer written questions about their finances, THEN they had to do depositions about what they'd said. So you'd get a chance to ask about all that stuff, the 40k, etc. I think the judge would be interested in hearing how he came up with $40,000 for his house but can't afford to pay for his kids' medical bills.

Are you trying to get him to have to pay you back child support? In the form of a counterclaim or something like that?

[findjoy81]

He is basing the modification claim of CS on his lower income.  (for the record, in deposition previously, he also claimed I called his previous 2 companies and made complaints against him, which are why he was fired. Even though we have written reports of why he lost his jobs with nothing to do with me - and everything to do with financial misconduct on his part  )
Before this modification of CS, I already had a claim of contempt on him for non-payment of child support and dropping health insurance.  That is still ongoing and is part of our counterclaim.  We are hoping to ask the judge to impute his income at his previous levels.  He's claiming to have lost 75% of his income from where it was 3 years ago.  (But can do all the things I listed in the original post on the thread).  It just doesn't add up.