If I stopped paying child support because my children have been living with me a majority of the time, could I possibly be made to pay back child support?

Thank you forsubmitting your question regarding failure to pay child support because your children have remained in your custody.  The laws governing the penalties for failure to pay child support are governed by each individual state, but the failure to pay child support can also be a federal offense in some cases.  However, the court will not penalize an individual for failure to pay child support, without hearing the parent’s justification for why the support was not paid.  Often the courts are very strict with parents regarding child support orders.  However, the reasoning behind the court’s conservative view on this matter is that the courts want to protect the best interests of the children involved in child custody and support issues. 

It appears that your defense for failure to make child support payments is that you were taking care of your children in your custody.  The court would likely agree that you should not be paying money to someone else for the support of your children, if you are financially responsible for the children when they are in your custody.  However, in order to avoid further legal complications with the court, if your child custody arrangement has changed, and this in turn has affected your court-ordered child support payments, then the court needs to be informed about these changes. 

If you have any changes needed to your current child custody agreements and child support orders, then you should petition the court for a modification of these orders.  If you need assistance with the petitions for modification, you can contact a family law attorney in your area for guidance in this matter.