If you pay child support, are you allowed to deduct anything on your taxes or claim the child as an exemption? A: Nothing can be deducted for the child support payments. Child support payments are neither deductible by the payer nor taxable income to the payee. You may be able to claim the child as a dependent. Generally, the custodial parent generally is treated as the parent who provided more than half of the child's support. This parent is usually allowed to claim the exemption for the child if the other exemption tests are met. However, the noncustodial parent may be treated as the parent who provided more than half of the child's support if the custodial parent signs a Form 8332 (PDF), Release of Claim to Exemption for Child of Divorced of Separated Parents, or a substantially similar statement.

Q: Are child support payments considered taxable income? A: No, child support payments are not considered taxable income, according to the IRS. Child support payments are neither deductible by the payer nor taxable to the payee. So when you calculate your gross income to see if you are required to file a tax return, do not include child support payments received

However it’s hard to entirely dismiss Conley’s argument, based as he says on Enlightenment ideas linking rights and responsibilities, that if the man has no say whatsoever in whether the baby is born, he shouldn’t be held responsible for child support. This is another idea that comes up against absolutes that many of us would find hard to surrender: Namely that a man is financially responsible for his child. However, is that always and ubiquitously fair?

“But when men and women engage in sexual relations both parties recognize the potential for creating life. If both parties willingly participate then shouldn’t both have a say in whether to keep a baby that results?”

Are Child Support Rules Unfair to Fathers?

n 2011, 32 percent of custodial fathers didn’t receive any of the child support that had been awarded to them, compared with 25.1 percent of custodial mothers.

That’s not as rare as some people might think — 18.3 percent of custodial parents in 2011 were fathers, according to the latest numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau, which is the source I’m using for all these figures. (Unfortunately, it doesn’t have data on same-sex parents.) While half of custodial mothers had legal child support agreements in place, only a quarter of fathers did (more on the reasons a bit later on).

Court-ordered child support does make sense, say, in the case of a divorce, when a man who is already raising a child separates from the child’s mother, and when the child’s mother retains custody of the child. In such cases, expectations of continued finiancial support recognize and stabilize a parent’s continued caregiving role in a child’s life.  However, just as court-ordered child support does not make sense when a woman goes to a sperm bank and obtains sperm from a donor who has not agreed to father the resulting child, it does not make sense when a woman is impregnated (accidentally or possibly by her choice) from sex with a partner who has not agreed to father a child with her.

The political philosopher Elizabeth Brake has argued that our policies should give men who accidentally impregnate a woman more options

A friend’s son accidentally got his girlfriend pregnant when they were in the last year of school. She wanted to keep the baby, and being a good guy, he wanted to support her. They subsequently split up, and she refused to let him have any access to his child although he desperately tried to have some. Yet he had to pay a large chunk of his salary every month to the women and his child. He was devastated; he hadn’t run from his responsibility and yet he was paying for a child he was never allowed to see. Is that fair?

Years ago I interviewed the basketball player John Amechi who told me he knew of cases where NBA players had slept with women and later found them trying to take the used condom home with them.

“This issue is really about labeling more than it is about nutrition. Whether in our homes or in our schools, we want to make informed choices. We want to know what’s in our food.”

“This issue is really about labeling more than it is about nutrition. Whether in our homes or in our schools, we want to make informed choices. We want to know what’s in our food.”

Schools are under more financial pressure

Schools are under more financial pressure

Schools are under more financial pressure

Schools are under more financial pressure