2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE EIGHT - Public Welfare and Charitable Institutions (§§ 1 — 1422) › Chapter 25 - Special Child Support Act (§§ 501 — 530) › § 525 - Measures to assure effective payment of support—Withholding state tax refunds

(1) The Administrator shall remit to the indebted obligor a notice regarding its intention to refer his/her name to the Secretary of the Treasury for same to withhold his/her state tax refund for the payment of the support debt.
In the notice, the indebted obligor shall be advised of:
(a) The terms of the support and the total amount in arrears, as certified by the Administrator;
(b) the right to object to the withholding of any of the refunds;
(c) the term of twenty (20) days from the date the notice of the request was served to object to said request;
(d) that he shall only be able to submit evidence of mistakes of fact regarding the existence of the debt, the amount in arrears, as well as the fact that he is not the indebted obligor, and
(e) that if no objection is made against the withholding of the refunds within twenty (20) days from the date the notice of the request was served; his name shall be referred to the Secretary of the Treasury for his refunds to be withheld for the payment of the child support debt.
A notice of this referral containing the information indicated in clauses (a)–(e) of this subsection shall also be remitted to the obligee.
If the obligor opportunely presents his objection to the withholding, the Administrator shall consider the objection within ten (10) days of having received same.
The Administrator shall consider any objection to the intention of withholding the tax refunds and shall review the objections. Both parties shall be notified of the resolution, which shall be issued within fifteen (15) days from the filing, within term, of the objection. If the withholding is upheld, the Administrator shall immediately inform the Secretary of the Treasury of the case for the latter to withhold the tax refund amounts in his possession belonging to the obligor. The Secretary of the Treasury shall withhold the amounts and remit them to the Administration, pursuant to this section.
(2) If the Secretary of the Treasury still has the refund in his possession, he shall remit the total amount of the tax refund to the Administrator if it is equal or less than the amount in the order; or only the amount in the order, if the tax refund were larger. Likewise, the Secretary of the Treasury shall notify the residential address and the social security number or numbers of the obligor, as well as whether or not he has a tax debt.
Should he not have any tax refunds belonging to the obligor in his possession at the time he receives the order of the Administrator, the Secretary of the Treasury, shall inform this fact to the Administrator.
In these cases, the order to withhold the tax refunds shall remain in effect for three (3) years or until enough tax refunds are credited to the obligor to comply with the support order or until the Administrator requests that the order be rendered ineffective, whichever comes first. In these cases, the Administrator shall be bound to update the information remitted to the Secretary of the Treasury at least annually.
The withholding of tax refunds under this chapter shall have preference over any other claim for that money including tax debts, notwithstanding provisions to the contrary in other laws. Consequently, in cases in which there is an outstanding order to withhold tax refunds, the application of the tax refund to the payment of other tax debts the obligor might have shall not be permitted until the amount in arrears for support has been satisfied.
(3) The Administrator shall identify whether the obligor has a child support debt with more than one entitled obligee under the custody of different persons and shall surrender the amount sent by the Secretary of the Treasury to each of the obligee children in the proportion that, according to ASUME, the parent without custody has with each of them.
(4) The Administrator, before turning over the amount remitted by the Secretary of the Treasury to the obligee/creditor, shall verify the total amount in arrears at that time in case there has been a payment by the indebted obligor, and if the support debt has been reduced or paid in full, shall remit the difference to the obligor after paying the amount due to the obligee, if no tax debt of the obligor exists, after the payment of the support in arrears to the obligee and sending notice to the Secretary of the Treasury.
(5) If the amount of tax refunds remitted by the Secretary of the Treasury to the Administrator exceeds the amount of the debt in arrears and the withholding of the excess is not in order, the Administrator shall send the excess amounts to the obligor promptly. If a tax debt of the obligor exists, the Administrator shall remit such excess to the Secretary of the Treasury.
(6) The Administrator may provide by regulations, with the approval of the Secretary, the amount the obligees who do not qualify for economic assistance shall be charged as a fee for the services rendered in withholding the tax refunds.
(7) In cases in which the obligee does not qualify for economic assistance under the category of temporary assistance, but has previously been a beneficiary of said program, the Administrator shall inform the parent who has custody of the minor obligees the total amount of the refund that it shall withhold to collect any economic assistance advanced to them and not repaid.
The Administrator, with the approval of the Secretary, shall establish by means of regulation the procedures for the withholding of state tax refunds.
History —Dec. 30, 1986, No. 5, p. 887, art. VII, § 26; Apr. 24, 1987, No. 16, § 7; Aug. 14, 1991, No. 67, § 1; Sept. 22, 1992, No. 72, § 3; Aug. 17, 1994, No. 86, § 33; Aug. 12, 1995, No. 202, § 8; Dec. 18, 1997, No. 169, § 20; Aug. 1, 2003, No. 178, § 29; Dec. 29, 2009, No. 219, § 2.