13.35.340 Income withholding.
When the Tribal Court orders a party to pay an amount for support, including support past due, it shall include an income withholding provision that orders the employer of the obligor to pay to the obligee that portion of the obligor’s earnings due or to become due in the future as will be sufficient to satisfy the child support order.
(a) For each noncustodial parent against whom a support order is or has been issued or modified, so much of his or her income must be withheld as is necessary to comply with the order, except that per capita, trust, or Individual Indian Money (IIM) payments need not be subject to withholding.
(b) In addition to amounts withheld to pay the current month’s obligation, the amount withheld must include an amount to be applied toward liquidation of any overdue support.
(c) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Code, the total amount to be withheld may not exceed 50 percent of the individual’s net income for any subject pay period, but may be set at a lower amount.
(d) Income withholding must comply with the procedural due process requirements established by Tribal law.
(e) Income withholding shall promptly be terminated in cases where there is no longer a current order for support and all arrearages have been satisfied. Any amounts that have been improperly withheld must be promptly refunded.
(f) If the employer fails to withhold income in accordance with the provisions of the income withholding order, the employer will be liable for the accumulated amount the employer should have withheld from the noncustodial parent’s income.
(g) Income shall not be subject to withholding in any case where:
(1) Either the custodial or noncustodial parent demonstrates, and the tribunal enters a finding, that there is good cause not to require income withholding; or
(2) A signed, written agreement is reached between the noncustodial and custodial parent which provides for an alternative arrangement, and it is reviewed and entered into the record by the court.
(h) Where immediate income withholding is not in place, the income of the noncustodial parent shall become subject to withholding, at the earliest, on the date on which payments which the noncustodial parent has failed to make under a Tribal Court support order are at least equal to the support payable for one month.
(i) Withholding may be contested based on a mistake of fact, which for the purposes of this subsection means an error in the amount of current or overdue support or in the identity of the alleged noncustodial parent.
(j) To initiate income withholding, the Tribal Court or the Yurok Tribe child support services program shall send the noncustodial parent’s employer a notice using the standard federal income withholding form.
(k) The Tribal Court or the Yurok Tribe child support services program must allocate withheld amounts across multiple withholding orders to ensure that allocation in no case results in a withholding for one child not being implemented.
(l) The Tribal Court or the Yurok Tribe child support services program shall receive and process income withholding orders from states, Tribes, and other entities, and ensure that such orders are properly and promptly served on employers within the Tribe’s jurisdiction.
(m) The Yurok Tribe may enter into a reciprocal child support enforcement agreement with the state of California, or its political subdivisions, for the purpose of enforcing support obligations and distributing collected support on the Yurok Reservation.
(n) An employer is subject to a fine of at least $100.00 per incident and may be subject to a greater amount based on the Tribal Court’s discretion for discharging, refusing to employ, or taking disciplinary action against any noncustodial parent because of the withholding.
(o) An employer may deduct the actual costs of complying with an order for income withholding, not to exceed $5.00, from the amount withheld. The employer must justify such deductions in a written itemization presented to the child support services program and forwarded to the parties.
(p) The total amount to be withheld shall not exceed the maximum amount permitted under Section 303(b) of the Consumer Credit Protection Act (15 U.S.C. § 1673(b)), but may be set at a lower amount as described in subsection (c) of this section. [Ord. 50 § 7.9(4), adopted, 3/23/2017.]