Put children above 14 on payroll

Put your (over 14-year-old) children on the payroll. By having them do some work for you, you’ll be able to shift some of your income that would be taxed at a higher rate to their lower tax bracket without being hit with kiddie taxes. Be careful, however, because college financial aid could be affected by their income. If the child is earning income from the point of view of the government, they may decide not to support the child in college or university with scholarships and other benefits. So, the decision regarding involving child in the payroll should be taken after going through the matter seriously.

You cannot deduct child support payments on your tax return because child support payments are neither taxable to the recipient on the recipient's tax return, nor tax deductible by the payer on the payer's tax return. And, any alimony payments that include an element of child support are not tax deductible on your tax return as to the child support element. If tax deductible alimony payments include an element of child support and partial payments are made the payments must be credited first to the non tax deductible child support.