My question involves a child custody case from the State of: Utah
First I need to lay out the situation. My ex and I have 5 children and have 50/50 custody both physical and legal. Parent time is a full week at a time with each parent. We currently have 2 children that need to be watched throughout the day as each of us works. Our decree specifies that each of us is responsible for half of any child care expenses that are incurred by the other party. Initially we had a daycare we took the kids to but we eventually moved to each of us acquiring our own person to watch the kids on our week.
My sister in law currently acts as my nanny and I use a service to pay her like an employee. By that I mean taxes, unemployment insurance, hourly wage, w2s etc. The service I use pays her with direct deposit twice monthly and she gets a pay stub.
My ex has used a hodgepodge of 10 different people and pays them directly with Venmo(similar to PayPal).
In the past she has just sent me a document showing the she had paid somebody something but it was always just something she created herself and didn't actually prove she had incurred an expense.
Recently she decided she was going to start paying her mother a flat monthly amount for taking the kids places or to watch the kids last minute if whoever is supposed to watch the kids that day can't do it. The Hilarious thing about watching the kids last minute is that she still pays her mother for the day she watches them on top of the regular flat fee.
When this charge appeared on the spreadsheet we use to track who owes what I pushed back that I wanted some actual proof that an expense was being incurred. She said she would get a receipt from her mother stating that she was paying her. I pushed back on that and said I wanted proof of an expense that she or her mother weren't generating themselves. I know she uses Venmo to pay her providers and I'm pretty sure she could provide a receipt from that system but is refusing.
After some additional pushing I found out that she hadn't actually paid her mother with money. She had "sold" her mother some furniture and agreed that her mother would pay for the furniture with this flat monthly fee. I don't actually have any proof that she actually sold her furniture either.
Long story short, I am asking her for proof that an expense was incurred for not only her mother's services but now also for all the other people she uses to watch the children. I want something printed out from a third party system that she or the person she has conspired with can't just create themselves. I know she isn't paying these people using cash but she refuses to provide something not self created for any of them. It makes me think she may be paying them less than she is claiming.
Can I require proof other than just a hand written receipt from the person who is providing the care? Like I said, she has proof that she paid them but is refusing to provide it.