Dear Heather,

owing child support does not necessarily slow down or stop your refund. The only way it does that, is if the child support agency or the court or state have referred the child support debt to the Federal Offset Program. If the debt were referred, you would get a letter describing the action and providing contact information in case you had questions.

So, in the absence of such a letter, your return takes the same length of time as everyone else; 2 to 4 weeks electronic filing, and 6 to 12 weeks manual filing.

The U.S. Treasury has a Federal Offset Program, where government agencies including child support inforcemetn, the court etc can refer debt to be offset by the federal income tax refunds.

The offset inlcudes the debt, court costs if any, and administrative fees.

They can get really nasty with this, to the point of sending out a lock letter to employers to make sure a set number of exemptions are used, to gaurantee a minimu income tax refund.

Dear heather,

You ask them if the referred it to the offset program, or wait until you get a letter.