| Q:
How will the levy fees be paid to the financial institutions? |
A:
The Minnesota Department of Human Services, Child Support Division will pay the financial institutions
$15 for every FIDM levy request. The $15 fee should not be deducted from the client account.
|
| Q:
What method will be used to make these payments? |
A:
The State will issue one check to each financial institution regardless of how many levy requests were made to
that institution in the previous month. For example, if the Minnesota child support offices sent an institution five
FIDM levy requests in a calendar month, the institution will receive a check for $75 from the State of Minnesota to
pay fees associated with those levy request the following calendar month.
|
| Q:
What information will be supplied with the levy payment? |
Enforcement
A:
Payments will have a memo on the stub "FIDM LEVY FEES MONTH YEAR" Further itemization is not possible because of privacy restrictions.
|
| Q:
What about questions that have not been answered here? |
A:
Please contact the Minnesota Department of Human Services, Child Support Division's Partners' Line at 651-215-1717 in
the Twin Cities metro area or 800-657-3890 in greater Minnesota.
|
| Q:
For multi-state financial institutions, how should levies received from other states be handled? |
A:
Multi-state financial institutions can set their own policy for handling levies received from other states. Minnesota's
levy Statute 552 does not require financial institutions to accept direct levies from other states; however, the statute also
does not preclude a multi-state financial institution from honoring levies if the financial institution so chooses.
Minnesota's Child Support Division recommends that multi-state financial institutions check with their institution's
legal counsel to establish a policy on whether your financial institution will accept direct levies from other states or not.
If your financial institution establishes a policy where direct levies are not accepted, the financial institution will need
to notify the sending state that your institution cannot accept direct levies. Your financial institution will also need to
notify the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement of this policy and you will have to provide separate levy addresses to
the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement for where levies should be sent for all your branches or banks.
|
| Q:
If a financial institution has any overdraft charges or for example, a car loan outstanding with the delinquent obligor whose
account is matched and the levy is served on their account, can the bank offset the loan or overdraft charges that are owed to
the bank before sending the levied funds to CSD? |
A:
A financial institution can offset the loan or overdraft charges, if the account is security for such charges. For example, if an
individual has a savings account that is security for a loan, only the funds in excess of that security should be seized.
However, if an individual has two accounts, one being a checking account that has an overdrawn charge and one being a savings account,
the financial institution cannot use funds from one account to pay the other account unless that other account has previously been
identified as security for the overdrawn account.
And if an individual has a loan which is delinquent AND another account, such as a savings account, the financial institution cannot
hold back funds to pay the loan unless the account was previously identified as security for that account or the financial
institution has already taken the appropriate action to satisfy the delinquent loan with those funds.
|
| Q:
Related to the previous question, what if a delinquent obligor has a CD that has funds held as collateral for a loan through the
financial institution, is the CD subject to levy also? |
A:
The amounts in excess of the security are subject to the levy.
|
| Q:
What if a bank has a perfected security interest on a CD, is that exempt from a levy? |
A:
The same exemptions that apply to other levy actions also apply to these levy actions.
|
| Q:
What types of accounts are subject to the data match program? |
A:
- Demand deposit accounts
- Checking accounts or negotiable withdrawal order accounts
- Savings accounts
- Time deposit accounts
- Money-market mutual fund accounts
|
| Q:
What financial institutions must participate in the data match program? |
A:
- Bank and savings and loans
- Federal and State credit unions
- Money market mutual funds
- Benefit associations, insurance companies, safe deposit companies, and similar institutions
|
| Q:
What is the methodology of performing the data match? |
A:
There are
two reporting methods for financial institutions: Method One (the all
accounts method) and Method Two (the matched accounts method)
|
| Q:
How
does Method One, the All Account Method, work? |
A:
- Financial institutions submit a file identifying all open accounts
to the State child support program.
- The child support program conducts an internal match against delinquent
obligors.
- The child support program may issue liens or levies to attach and
seize the asset(s) of the delinquent obligor.
|
| Q:
How
does Method Two, the Matched Accounts Method, work? |
A:
- The State child support program submits an inquiry file, containing
delinquent obligors, to the financial institution.
- The financial institution conducts an internal match against its
open accounts.
- The financial institution sends a file to the child support program
that reports information on all accounts maintained by individuals on
the inquiry file.
- The match report must be returned to the State within 30-45 days
of receipt of the inquiry file.
- The child support program may issue liens or levies to attach and
seize the asset(s) of the delinquent obligor
|
| Q:
How
often must the data match be conducted? |
A:
It must
be performed quarterly.
|
| Q:
What data is returned to the child support program for use in collecting
delinquent support order obligations? |
A:
Financial
institutions are required to provide the name, record address, Social
Security number or other taxpayer identification number, and other identifying
information for each match. Account balances are not
required. The inclusion of this information will, however, negate the
possibility of the Child Support District from issuing liens
and/or levies against accounts with small balances.
|
| Q:
Can
a financial institution be held liable for the release of account
information relating to the Minnesota Financial Institution Data Match program and the levies that may result? |
A:
No,
Section 466(a)(17)(C) 42 U.S.C. 666(a)(17)(C) of the Social Security Act
and Minnesota State Statute 13B.06 established that a financial
institution shall not be liable under
federal or state law
to any person
for any disclosure of information to the State IV-D agency under section
466(a)(17)(A)(i) of the Act.
Similarly,
financial institutions shall not be liable under any federal or State
law for encumbering or surrendering any assets they hold in response
to a notice of lien or levy issued by the IV-D agency.
Financial
institutions will not be held liable for any other action taken in good
faith to comply with the requirements of FIDM.
|
| Q:
Will
the Minnesota financial institutions receive a fee for conducting the
data match? |
A:
In accordance with Section
466(a)(17)(b) of the Social Security Act and Minnesota statutes 2001,
section 13B.06, subdivision 7, a financial institution may charge and
collect a fee from the public authority for providing account
information to the public authority. The Department of Human Services
may pay a financial institution up to $150.00 each quarter if the
Department and the financial institution have entered into a signed
agreement that complies with federal law.
Payment of the fee is limited by the
amount of the appropriation for this purpose. If the appropriation is
insufficient, or if fund availability in the fourth quarter would allow
payments for actual costs in excess of $150.00 per quarter, the
Department will prorate the available funds among the financial
institutions that have submitted a claim for the fee.
|
| Q:
Are IRA accounts
eligible for levy under the financial institution data match program? |
A:
Yes, All 401K, 403B, KEOGH, IRA's etc.
are eligible for levy as long as the person/employee (privately, publicly or self-employed)
is the one who controls the account, i.e. can decide to take money out of the
account.
|
| Q:
As a follow up to
that, who is responsible for the tax liabilities? |
A:
The account holder is responsible for
all tax liabilities resulting from the early withdrawal of funds due to a financial institution
data match levy.
|
| Q:
As another
follow up, how does the financial institution handle the penalties? |
A:
The financial institution should
withhold the penalties prior to releasing the funds to the Child Support
Payment Center because the amount after penalties paid by non-custodial
parent is the amount that the non-custodial parent really owns--the
federal government takes the rest to penalize the early withdrawal.
|
| Q:
Should safe deposit
box account information be included in the data match file? |
A:
No, this information should not be
included. The contents of safe deposit boxes are not subject to levy.
|
| Q:
If a financial
institution receives a notice of levy on Friday, they freeze the funds
that are available in the account on that day. If the account holder
deposits additional funds on Monday, are those funds also to be frozen? |
A:
No, only the funds available on the date
the levy request is received are eligible for levy - up to the amount in the levy request.
|
| Q:
Under other levy
actions, the financial institution receives a notice of levy with a
disclosure form that they then forward on to the account holder after they
have frozen the account. With the FIDM levy actions they are not receiving
this form, is that correct? |
A:
Minnesota Stat. 552.06 requires that we
send the notice of levy to the account holder 3 days after we send the
notice to the financial institution - our notice must include the
exemption claim notice.
|
| Q:
How does the
financial institution know if any funds are determined exempt? |
A:
Upon determination of exempt funds or
upon filing of a request for hearing, we will send a notice to the FI of
the hearing and of the results of that hearing, including any accounts or
amounts that are exempt.
|
