State v. David J. Lenz, 230 Wis.2d 529, 602 N.W.2d 173 (Ct. App. 1999)
For Lenz: Steven D. Phillips, SPD, Madison Appellate.
Issue: Whether intercepts of tax refunds can be considered payments toward support obligations.
Holding: The nonsupport statute doesn’t require that payments be made “voluntarily,” and tax refund intercepts therefore count.
“The intercepts are payments from Lenz’s assets. Although he did not directly make them, we agree that payments made by intercept should be deemed support payments by the parent. The refunds were intercepted during and applied to specific 120-day periods in 1994, 1995 and 1996. It is sufficient that sums were paid to meet Lenz’s support obligation. The charges, to the extent they include within the 120-day period charged, a month during which intercepts were received and applied, should be dismissed.”
