While Virginia’s abusive driver fees have been getting a lot of attention, there’s another new tax is sneaking under the radar. Starting in October, recipients of child support in Virginia will have to pay $ 25 per year to help reduce the federal deficit:
In October, Virginia’s Child Support Enforcement department will start collecting an annual fee from child support recipients to help offset the national deficit.
Recently 130,000 letters were sent to child support recipients in Virginia stating that $25 a year will be deducted from their support payments, said Nick Young, director of child support enforcement for Virginia.
The state must collect the fee because it is mandated by the federal 2005 Deficit Reduction Act.
“It’s a nuisance fee,” Young said. “Virginia didn’t like it, lots of us testified against it [in Congress] and we lost.”
Parents who have children receiving child support don’t like it either.
“It’s not right to steal from little kids, and that’s what the federal government is doing,” said Pam Colbert, a mother of four girls, two of whom get support.
Virginia Child Support Enforcement becomes involved in child support cases when a parent asks the government to assist in collecting the money.
Two-thirds of the fee will be transferred to the federal government and the remainder will be placed in the state’s Department of Social Services budget to pay for computer upgrades necessary to collect the fees, and to pay for future collections.
The fee averages about $2 a month, said Young, and it’s one of the only fees charged to parents related to child support, besides blood tests and court fees.
“Where could you hire a lawyer, an accountant, a court specialist and case worker for $2 a month?” Young said. “While we don’t like the fee, we wish we didn’t have to charge it and we wish it wasn’t mandated by federal law, but in perspective, people are receiving value for the money.”
What value ? This tax isn’t going toward anything even remotely related to child support, it’s not going to fund the Division of Child Support Enforcement, heck, it’s even going toward education. It’s going to reduce the federal budget deficit. Because, you know $ 25 a month is going to make all the difference.
August 24th, 2007 at 11:13 am
I agree, it’s stupid, but that’s $25 per year, not per month (end of your note).
September 12th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Why doesn’t the state fund a child support insurance program that will pay child support while the obligor is unemployed?
September 12th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
What a great idea.
November 15th, 2007 at 10:43 am
It’s not just Virginia, it’s all states. I will be deducting it from my taxes.
December 12th, 2007 at 10:13 pm
I was mailed a letter in October and was told that I would have to pay 25.00 a year out my child suport for the federal deficit. I discoved that this was a federal law past in 2005 and this law is taken money out of our childrens mouths to pay the national debt. I do not know if there is a movement of protest to this law But I am going to start one and I need help. The country needs to know what this goverment has secretly pasted into law and has done to the struggly parents of this country. A notice of this law was just sent this past October two months before they began taken the money out. I am sure that the parents of this country would have raised a big stink and fought this bill as they did immigration reform. This is an outrage and an embarrasment To have money taken out of the mouths of our children is totaly irresposible.
Renee M Gauthier