If you don’t pay child support in Massachusetts, the Department of Revenue can start collecting from your paycheck, bank accounts, tax refunds, and property without going to court first, and it can suspend your driver’s license, professional licenses, and passport while interest and penalties keep inflating the debt. If that doesn’t produce payment, the custodial parent or the DOR can take you back to Probate and Family Court on a contempt complaint, where a judge can order jail time and make you pay the other side’s attorney’s fees. Parents who’ve moved out of state can also face federal criminal charges.
Interest and Penalties Start Adding Up
Once your past-due balance passes $500, Massachusetts charges 0.5% per month in interest plus a 0.5% penalty, for a combined 1% monthly charge on the arrears.1Mass.gov. 830 CMR 119A.6.1 Assessment of Interest and Penalties on Past-Due Child Support On a $10,000 balance, that’s $100 a month on top of your ongoing support obligation. The DOR can reduce or eliminate these charges in some situations, but only if you’re actively working with them to resolve the debt.2Mass.gov. Having Trouble Paying Your Child Support
What the DOR Can Take Without Going to Court
The Child Support Services Division inside the DOR handles most enforcement on its own authority.3Mass.gov. Child Support Services Division You will not get sued first. The collection tools run in parallel.
Income withholding is the baseline. Your employer deducts support from your check before you see it, under a federal requirement that applies in every state.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 666 – Requirement of Statutorily Prescribed Procedures to Improve Effectiveness of Child Support Enforcement If withholding doesn’t close the gap, the DOR can intercept your state and federal tax refunds, levy funds directly out of your bank accounts, grab unemployment compensation, and under federal law reach into Social Security retirement and disability benefits.5Mass.gov. Interest and Penalties on Past-Due Child Support
Unpaid support also creates an automatic lien in favor of the parent or caregiver owed the money. The lien attaches to all of your property — real estate, vehicles, bank accounts, anything you own — and gets recorded with the registry of deeds for real property and with the Registry of Motor Vehicles or Secretary of State for personal property. Once recorded, you can’t sell or transfer those assets until the debt is paid.6General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 119A Section 6
License and Passport Consequences
The DOR can suspend your driver’s license, vehicle registration, professional and trade licenses, and recreational permits for unpaid support. The statute defines “license” broadly enough to cover essentially any permit or certificate issued by a state or local authority, and the same provision applies if you ignore a subpoena or summons in a child support or paternity case.7General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 119A Section 16 You get written notice and 30 days to request a hearing before the suspension takes effect, but the only defenses are that you don’t owe the arrears, you’re not the right person, or you’re current on a DOR-approved payment plan. Getting a suspended license back generally means paying what you owe or sticking to a payment plan.
Passports are a federal piece of this. Once your arrears pass $2,500, the federal Office of Child Support Services automatically forwards your name to the State Department, which will refuse to issue or renew a passport until your balance drops below the threshold or you make satisfactory payment arrangements.8Administration for Children and Families. How Does the Passport Denial Program Work
Your Credit Report
Massachusetts law requires the DOR to report delinquent parents, and the amount owed, to consumer reporting agencies after giving notice and a chance to contest.9Justia Law. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 93 Section 52A Once reported, the arrears sit on your credit report and can block a mortgage, car loan, or credit card for years.
Contempt and Jail
When administrative collection isn’t enough, the DOR or the custodial parent can file a complaint for contempt in Probate and Family Court. Contempt means willfully disobeying a clear court order. At the hearing, the burden is on you to show you genuinely couldn’t comply. Inconvenience isn’t enough; you have to show real inability to pay.
If the judge finds you in contempt, the court can order the full arrears paid immediately, impose a structured payment plan, assess fines, or order incarceration to compel payment. There’s also a built-in financial penalty: Massachusetts law presumes a parent found in contempt will pay the other side’s attorney’s fees and expenses. A judge can waive that, but only with specific written findings explaining why.10General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 215 Section 34A A contempt finding routinely leaves you owing the back support plus thousands in legal fees.
Federal Criminal Charges If You’ve Crossed State Lines
Most enforcement stays at the state level, but if the child lives in another state, willful nonpayment becomes a federal crime once the debt exceeds $5,000 or has been unpaid for more than a year. A first offense is a misdemeanor carrying up to six months in prison. If the arrears pass $10,000 or go unpaid for more than two years, or on a second offense, the charge becomes a felony with up to two years in federal prison. The government has to prove the nonpayment was willful, meaning you had the means and refused.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 228 – Failure to Pay Legal Child Support Obligations
Bankruptcy Won’t Erase It
Filing bankruptcy will not wipe out child support arrears. Federal bankruptcy law specifically exempts domestic support obligations from discharge in both Chapter 7 and Chapter 13. The debt survives and collection continues.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 523 – Exceptions to Discharge
What to Do Instead of Falling Behind
If your income has dropped or circumstances have genuinely changed, file for a modification instead of simply skipping payments. Massachusetts courts can modify a support order when there has been a material and substantial change in circumstances since the last order. Job loss, a significant income drop, and major changes in healthcare costs are typical grounds.13General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 208 Section 28 For parents who were never married, the court has similar authority to modify at any time.14General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 209C Section 9
Timing matters. Any reduction generally applies only from the date you file the modification complaint, not from the day your circumstances changed. Lose your job in January, file in June, and you still owe the full amount for those five months. The DOR can also help you request a modification or set up a payment agreement on existing arrears, and in some cases may offer an “equitable adjustment” to reduce the past-due balance owed to the state.2Mass.gov. Having Trouble Paying Your Child Support Doing nothing is the worst option: the interest and penalties don’t stop, the enforcement tools trigger automatically, and a judge who later reviews the case will not look kindly on a parent who ignored the problem.