Daddy Bills, Flav-Style

Flavor Flav’s third televised quest (telequest?) for a lady, “Flavor of Love,” is underway on VH1 (VIA). While the 48 year-old golden-grilled rapper’s search for a wife drags on, in the meantime he is going to need a midwife. That is because Flav, aka William Drayton Jr., who already has seven children and two grandchildren, has another baby on the way. “It's true he's on his eighth child but, as he’s said in the past, he’d like 10,” said a VH1 spokesperson. “So, there are two more to go.” Neither season one winner Nicole “Hoopz” Alexander, nor season two winner London “Deelishis” Charles, is the mother of Flav’s offspring, future or past. Instead, the mother is a new love to whom Flav is rumored to be engaged, even though he’s still looking for love on cable TV.

As Flav can attest, being a father being a father isn’t cheap. Before launching a second career in reality television, Flav was reportedly broke. No wonder. According to Charles Abut, a family law attorney based in New Jersey, child support can run $25,000 a year and “depending on the kind of family, that’s conservative.” The rapper’s seven children are with at least three women.With at least five kiddies still eligible for support, that would mean a total childcare tab of at least $125,000 a year for the former Public Enemy hype man—and counting!

 For men about to become fathers out of wedlock, the first thing you should do is hire a lawyer. “The number one issue is that there is going to be a child,” says Abut. “Support obligation for this unborn child will last anywhere from 18 to 25 years. We have cases that extend to paying for graduate school.” 

“I always ask, ‘How do you know you’re the father?’” says Abut, who strongly encourages a paternity test. The American Pregnancy Association estimates a paternity test should cost between $400 and $2,000, depending upon the level of cooperation from both parties. If there is any doubt about paternity, paying for the test is worth the cost.

One of the biggest tax advantages for single parents is filing as a head of household. In order to qualify, you must be unmarried, pay for more than 50% of your home’s upkeep and have a qualifying child – an unmarried child or grandchild—live with you for at least half of the year. “It’s a whole different set of tax rights,” says Cathy Goldsticker, a Certified Public Accountant at Brown, Smith, Wallace, in Saint Louis, Missouri. A single person begins the 15% bracket at $7,825; the head of household doesn’t have to start paying 15% until $11, 200. “It’s definitely beneficial because you can earn more money before you can touch the higher rates,” says Goldsticker. You also get your choice of an itemized or standardized deduction, which for head of household is $7,850 in 2007. For a single person that’s $5,350. 

Once child support is established, there is a tax benefit if the couple can agree on who can take the exemption. If both parties generate income that supports the child, the tax exemption often needs to be negotiated because the IRS will not allow both parents to take it. “Sometimes we trade off,” says Abut. “We’ll take the exemption in 2008 and all subsequent even numbered years and the other side will take it for the odds.”

If a single parent makes less than $75,000, he or she qualifies for the child tax credit of $1,000 per qualifying kid. If the parent makes a little more, the credit is reduced $50 for each $1,000 above $75,000. That $1,000 credit is the best kind offered by the IRS, because it’s refundable, meaning you can get it back even if you don’t owe any tax. But even if Flavor Flav had custody of all seven of his kids and made less than $75,000 a year, he wouldn’t get a $7,000 credit. “There’s an alternate calculation for three or more children,” says Goldsticker. As Flav might say, “Yikes!”