Why does child support not show the correct credits in their system after taking irs refund and stimulus?

Question

What should I do besides spend 50 hours on the phone trying to get this straightened out? Child support took my irs and stimulus which is just fine with me BUT..... I wasn't given the proper credit on my account. The total they kept was over $4500 and my child support account online shows it was received along with my other payments but my paper statement that came in today which is dated 3 weeks after the payments posted shows I only received a credit of barely $1000 against my past due amount. What happened to the other $3500? I do not owe any court fees.

Answer 1

Go by your online statement. It is more current.

The IRS has two-week cycles for updating. It might take more than one cycle to update. And then the state has to update their records. 3 weeks is not enough time to necessarily show up on a paper statement.

Answer 2

It's probably still in process.  The IRS holds it for quite awhile before sending it on to the child support agency, to be sure there is no legitimate protest such as an injured spouse form filed.  It can take up to 6 months.

If your support account online shows the payments, but the paper statement didn't, it could be just a timing issue - see what the next paper statement shows.