Does my wife owe me half of our tax rebate or can that go to child support?

If you filed a joint return then you are entitled to one half of refund. This refund is a property issue and not related to child support.

If it was a joint return then for sure yes it is half yours, if separated for a year and she filed on her own then no.

The refund should be addressed in the final Judgment, along with the distribution of all other assets and debts. It will not be considered child support, but you may very well receive half of it (or a greater portion of some other asset or a lesser portion of some debt).

If your wife refuses to refund divide the tax refund in half and give you your for thousand dollar half, then you should go to court and ask the court to order her to disgorge half the funds to you. If, the court then orders that your wife can keep the full $8000, but orders that $4000 of that money be applied prospectively to child support, then you are in the clear, because you have a court order. In Utah, you would be wisest insist that your wife divide to you half of your $8000 tax refund and then pay for child support out of it. Because it's possible for the court to find that simply allowing her to keep the entire tax refund and apply your have to child support does not result in that money being applied the child support. It may seem strange, but the law in Utah is that you cannot pre-pay child support. So if you tell your wife "Hey, I know that I owe you $500 in child support this month, but since you have our $8000 tax refund, just apply my $4000 half of that refund to the payment of child support for the next eight months," neither your wife nor the court is bound to accept those terms. This is why the best thing for you to do is insist that your wife hand over your half (to which you are entitled) of the tax refund and then pay child support each month out of that $4000 until you have used up those funds.

Technically, half of the refund is yours. If you want to apply it to child support, fine. However, rather than leave things in limbo, you would be better served if you filed for divorce as soon as possible.

Hire an attorney. We cannot answer this question without knowing a lot more of the facts.