The Financial Divorce Blog » Divorce

Child Dependent Exemption Tax Deduction and Divorce

Dkane — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 04:22:47 +0000

For tax year 2009 and after, the rules for the Child Dependent Exemption Tax Deduction related to divorce have been changed.

The Internal Revenue Service amended the tax code related to the Child Dependency Exemption Deduction. Being able to claim the exemption for your dependent child has many significant tax advantages to the parent claiming [...]

Divorce Information Tips and Strategies to Protect Your Finances

Dkane — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:03:02 +0000

No one goes into their marriage thinking that they are going to have to pull things apart and pick-up the sometimes unfamiliar role of managing their finances. To some, this is what they are used to dealing with and to others, it becomes a very stressful task that is piled onto an already stressful [...]

Child Support Enforcement

Dkane — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:42:23 +0000

We receive many questions on the topic of enforcing child support payments. The individual state Child Support Enforcement (CSE) sites listed below can answer many of your questions. The most common questions center around the following:

Enforcing child support orders

Locating absent parents and their property

Getting an order of paternity, if the father needs to [...]

Divorce Impact on Life Insurance Needs

Dakane — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 21:58:49 +0000

It’s important to consider your life insurance needs prior to the divorce so that you can include appropriate provisions into your settlement.

If you pass while married, in most states, the property passes to the spouse who then presumably passes property along to their children. Divorce makes these decisions and inheritance paths [...]

Using the Married Filing Joint Status during Divorce

Dkane — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:58:10 +0000

An area that needs to be examined while you are going through the divorce process is determining the tax filing status that will be the most advantageous to you. During the pre-divorce year(s), you have a couple of options that can increase or reduce your tax liability depending on which filing status you [...]

Alimony versus Child Support Payments

Dkane — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 03:41:06 +0000

What is Alimony?

Alimony is also often called spousal support. Alimony payments are used to provide the spouse that is making a lower-income with funds to cover expenses that are not provided for through child support or through the division of property. Many factors come into play when determining the amount of [...]

What are the basic divorce issues that have to be decided?

Dakane — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:59:55 +0000

Before a divorce can be finalized, there are minimum decisions to be made in several areas.

Determine child custody arrangement and visitation rights: Who has physical custody of the children (sole physical custody or joint physical custody)? This defines who the children live with. Emotionally and financially, this is an important aspect to be decided. The [...]

Divorce, Debt and Credit Accounts

Dakane — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 22:01:37 +0000

Most people understand the importance of good credit in starting a new, independent life after a divorce. Unfortunately, many people find that their credit is damaged due to circumstances that occurred during the marriage. In addition to repairing damaged credit and building good credit (topics for future articles), cleaning up your accounts is a [...]

Bankruptcy and Divorce

Dakane — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 20:45:21 +0000

There are several issues to consider when contemplating a bankruptcy filing as part of a divorce. Certain debts are dischargeable and others are not. The following divorce related debts are not dischargeable in a bankruptcy filing:

Taxes (federal, state, real estate, etc) Child support Alimony (aka Spousal Support or Maintenance)

Debts arising from a marital settlement [...]

Community Property vs. Equitable Property Rules in Divorce

Dakane — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 21:33:41 +0000

Nine states are Community Property states:

Arizona California Idaho Louisiana Nevada New Mexico Texas Washington Wisconsin

In contrast, other states follow an Equitable property distribution. Both terms are described below.

Community Property

Community property states consider all property as being in two categories: separate property or community property. Separate property doesn’t need to be split at the time of divorce but community property does.

In a community property [...]