Florida Child Support

My question involves child support in the State of: Florida
My husband just recently found out that he is the father of another child. He did everything his attorney told him including a paternity test due to the question of him being the father because the mother at the time had a boyfriend and as soon as he found out she was pregnant ended the relationship and she moved in with another guy that she had also been involved with at the time. Anyhow, now my husband is having to pay half of what he brings home a month for child support and back support. We do have 2 children of our own and the court did not take into consideration the children or our finances setting the child support amount at 76% support due to her stating she is not able to work a full time job. I don't understand this because she is in no way disabled and is fully capable of working a 40 hr week just like the most of world why the court would not hold her responsible for atleast half of what the child's care would cost.

Also recent finds are that the mother was arrested last year for domestic violence which took place in front of the child, she had illegal recreation habits that she is not smart enough to not post on her myspace page for everyone to see, and is recently married to someone from another country that is also not smart enough to not post his love for violence, guns, and war. Given all of this information and the feeling that he will be paying for the majority of the child's care we have been considering filing for custody of the child seeing that we have a stable home with enough room, both are perfectly able to work full time jobs and will not expose the child to illegal activity or the chance of violence. The only concern we have is that we no longer live in the same state as the child and haven't for a few years.

Also, there is a concern as to if the state of Florida will take our tax refund without giving notice due to the recent court order for support and arrears.

Child support is determined in accord with statute, Florida Statutes, Sec. 61.30. If your husband believes the court made an error in assessing support, he can petition the court to correct the error. If he owes an arrearage, he can reasonably expect his tax returns to be applied to his arrearage.

If he believes that the circumstances justify his taking custody of the child, and he wishes to do so, he may petition a court to grant him custody. If all he cares about is cutting his support payment, factors that may justify a change of custody are not relevant to the statutory formula.

Does your husband have a relationship with this child? Is there a custody order? How old is the child?

Should we file seperately so that my return is not touched because of his arrears? He has not known this child seeings how he just found out about the child but we feel that we can offer him a stable home. The thought of child support would not be the reason for fighting for custody just the thought of making sure he was being brought up in a happy safe environment. The thing we are unsure of is that they do not know each other and we live in separate states. We do not want to have the child be afraid because he is being taken from what he has known as his life and put into an unfamiluar environment. We both have stable jobs and do not involve ourselves in activities that would endanger the child emotionally or physically such as the ones we have found that he is currently in but feel it would be a hard long fight and we are unsure what is going to be right at this point afraid that it may not only hurt the child but our family life with the stress involved at the same time. So what do you do? Do you try to save a child from what you feel is wrong with their situation and chance the confussion?

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Quoting whattodonow1

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Should we file seperately so that my return is not touched because of his arrears?

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Filing seperately is going to result in higher taxes. The better course will be to file jointly and file an Injured Spouse form with your return. The IRS will then determine what portion of the refund is your husband's and what portion is yours. Your husband's portion will be sent for the CS and you will recieve your portion of the refund. You can find more info on the Injured Spouse form at www.irs.gov