You may certainly ask that judge order them to file their federal and state returns if there are refunds to claim for support. The judge may order them to file the returns but a judge will not order that they have them “professionally” prepared. They can do the returns themselves if they want, so long as the returns get filed should the judge order that. Without custody of the kids, though, any EIC they have is likely to be small, so unless they also had significant withheld tax from their jobs there may not be a whole lot of refunds to apply to the outstanding support arrears.

