Calculate Divorce Alimony
If you want to calculate the potential alimony payments you will have to pay or will receive, then here’s a piece of bad news: it really isn’t as simple as that. The courts will take a long, long time deliberating over this subject, and they do this with the help of experts and professionals. To hope to be able to calculate the figure on the back of a notepad is, well, a little ambitious.
Interestingly this contrasts vividly with child support where the payments there are decided pretty much through a set of well-known and well-understood formulae.
Having said that, there are some rules of thumb that you can take into consideration, and some pointers that you might pay heed to in order to have a rough guess at the magnitude of potential payments.
Some Rough Pointers
The divorce courts look at some specific areas in order to determine alimony. While the particular areas – and the weight, if any, that they hold – will change from state to state, there are some that crop up in most state’s laws.
Length Of Marriage
The first question, and possibly the one most likely to sway the figure one way or the other, is the length of the marriage. Generally, the longer the marriage the more alimony will be due. Why is this? Well the courts’ view is that if one party in the marriage has sacrificed their earnings – and their earning capacity – for a longer length of time, then they are in worse off financially than they would be if they hadn’t married. This is particularly applicable in situations where, for example, the husband goes off to work while the wife stays at home and looks after the children. In today’s modern world these roles could be reversed, of course, but the principle remains constant.
And this neatly brings us onto the next point which the courts may choose to asses: employment status of the spouse seeking alimony in the divorce.
Employment Status
One spouse being – in the courts’ parlance – underemployed for a number of years will effect the alimony payments due to them. Again, the rationale behind this is that the underemployed partner has sacrificed some or all of his or her earnings in order to better look after the family.
If the potential a partner to obtain suitable employment – at a pay rate that will adequately suit his or her needs – then the courts may rule that that person does not require alimony in order to carry on living in the manner in which they are accustomed. For this judgment, age, education, work history, and the age of any dependents will all be considered.
If one party or the other has a debilitating disability or illness then this will be considered, too. Not only will it affect the capacity for work, but it could well introduce costs of its own that need to be settled by the disabled spouse. In these cases the courts would be more likely to require alimony payments be paid to the disabled spouse.
Assets And Divorce Alimony
If one party is set to receive generous assets – perhaps the house in which the family lived or a trust fund – then the courts will take this into consideration when assessing the divorce alimony request.
Other Issues To Consider
Alimony payments may be taxable to the recipient and tax deductible for the payor. This might work for or against either side, depending on the situation, and both sides may agree a better way to spread the costs. Naturally your divorce attorney will be able to help and advise on this side of things.
No Easy Way
From the start we noted that there was no clear and easy way to calculate how much divorce alimony would be paid – or would be due – to either party. Hopefully you will now see that this is the case. At the same time you should now see that there are a few easy ways to assess you and your spouse’s life situation in relation to alimony payments.