§ 285.3 Offset of tax refund payments to collect past-due support.

(a) Definitions. For purposes of this section:

Debt as used in this section is synonymous with the term past-due support unless otherwise indicated.

Debtor as used in this section means a person who owes past-due support.

Fiscal Service means the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, a bureau of the Department of the Treasury.

HHS means the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Child Support Enforcement.

IRS means the Internal Revenue Service, a bureau of the Department of the Treasury.

Past-due support means the amount of support, determined under a court order, or an order of an administrative process established under State law, for support and maintenance of a child, or of a child and the parent with whom the child is living, which has not been paid, as defined in 42 U.S.C. 664(c).

State means the several States of the United States. The term “State” also includes the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, the United States Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

Tax refund offset means withholding or reducing a tax refund payment by an amount necessary to satisfy a debt owed by the payee(s) of a tax refund payment.

Tax refund payment means any overpayment of Federal taxes to be refunded to the person making the overpayment after the IRS makes the appropriate credits as provided in 26 U.S.C. 6402(a) and 26 CFR 6402–3(a)(6)(i) for any liabilities for any Federal tax on the part of the person who made the overpayment.

(b) General rule. (1) Past-due support will be collected by tax refund offset upon notification to Fiscal Service in accordance with 26 U.S.C. 6402(c), 42 U.S.C. 664 and this section. Collection by offset under 26 U.S.C. 6402(c) is a collection procedure separate from the collection procedures provided by 26 U.S.C. 6305 and 26 CFR 301.6305–1, relating to the assessment and collection of certain child and spousal support liabilities. Tax refund offset may be used separately or in conjunction with the collection procedures provided in 26 U.S.C. 6305, as well as other collection procedures.

(2) Fiscal Service will compare tax refund payment records, as certified by the IRS, with records of debts submitted to Fiscal Service. A match will occur when the taxpayer identifying number (as that term is used in 26 U.S.C. 6109) and name of a payment certification record are the same as the taxpayer identifying number and name of a delinquent debtor record. When a match occurs and all other requirements for tax refund offset have been met, Fiscal Service will reduce the amount of any tax refund payment payable to a debtor by the amount of any past-due support debt owed by the debtor. Any amounts not offset will be paid to the payee(s) listed in the payment certification record.

(c) Notification of past-due support—(1) Past-due support eligible for tax refund offset. Past-due support qualifies for tax refund offset if:

(i)

(A) There has been an assignment of the support obligation to a State and the amount of past-due support is not less than $25.00, or such higher amount as HHS rules may allow, whichever is greater; or