Spousal Maintenance.
Spousal maintenance (sometimes referred to as spousal support) is another issue which the court might be called upon to address in a divorce case. Our Spousal Maintenance Attorneys can guide you through these issues. Of course, one of the problems a divorce creates is that the two parties now must live separately – and, overall, it is more expensive for two to live separately than together. So, if the two parties have an appreciable difference in income, the lesser-income spouse might ask the court for an award of spousal maintenance.
Spousal maintenance is statutorily designed to be temporary, rather than permanent. Its purpose is to provide the lesser-income party some additional income to enable him/her to get further job training or education – so as to enable that party to begin making more income. (That said, if the lesser-income party already is retired, the purpose of spousal maintenance is to provide additional income to the party, without the need for requiring that party to seek further job training or education.) The monthly amount and the duration of the spousal maintenance award will largely be dependent upon four factors:
- the length of the marriage
- the life station of the parties
- the requesting party’s degree of financial need
- the other party’s financial ability to pay
A spousal maintenance award of a required duration typically will end sooner upon (1) the death of either party or (2) the remarriage of the party receiving the spousal maintenance.
Spousal maintenance payments, unlike child support payments, are regarded as an income-shifting mechanism. So, the party paying the spousal maintenance gets to deduct the payments for income tax purposes. Therefore, the party receiving the spousal maintenance must declare the payments as income for tax purposes.
Our Spousal Maintenance Attorneys Will Alleviate the Stress
As you can see, going through a divorce can be a very complicated and emotionally straining process. Many issues in addition to those discussed above can arise. With our abundance of expertise with divorce cases, our spousal maintenance attorneys will reasonably guide you through this part of the divorce process.
Divorce is a painful experience for all parties involved, and a good divorce attorney can guide and lead you through the emotional path of divorce and keep you focused on the end result, particularly in child custody disputes or dissolution of property orders. An empathetic divorce attorney can make all the difference in the world to your divorce case.
