Posted on September 19,2017 in Divorce

In this day and age, many people are always looking for tax deductions, but most do not think to look to the fees associated with a divorce to find them. Yet it is possible to claim certain divorce-related expenses as tax deductible, and the deductions can add up. Being aware of such possibilities can make a significant difference in your end-of-the-year tax bill.

Alimony

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Code clearly states that you may not deduct the cost of “counseling, litigation, or personal advice.” However, if you are a spouse seeking maintenance—also known as alimony—in a divorce there are some fees that you may be able to claim as deductions. If you incur fees such as filing fees while in the process of seeking alimony, you are able to claim many of them as miscellaneous deductions. The important thing to remember is that the claimed deductions related to alimony may not exceed more than two percent of the person’s adjusted gross income (AGI), which for most people is a fairly small number.

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 Posted on September 14,2017 in Division of Assets

Sometimes in a divorce proceeding, one or both spouses try to get an unfair advantage in regard to property division. Asset hiding is depressingly common, with Forbes reporting approximately one-third of people with joint bank accounts have committed “financial deception.” However, it is still illegal, and you could be in serious trouble if you are caught.

Illinois Property Division

In Illinois, marital property division is done equitably, which means fairly rather than equally. It is generally held to be a matter of good public policy that divorce proceedings do not leave one spouse in a significantly financially disadvantaged position. If one spouse has far more earning potential than the other, he or she will likelyl be ordered to provide more support or given fewer assets.

This does not, however, apply to non-marital property. Non-marital property refers specifically to assets or income that is obtained prior to the marriage or specific assets acquired by one spouse. Examples include inheritances or gifts, neither of which are divisible in Illinois (though they are in other states). Non-marital property can be commingled with marital property, to an extent that makes it difficult to separate the two - if this is the case in your divorce proceeding, the court may hold that the property has been “transmuted” into marital property by the act of commingling the two. This can be an unpleasant shock if one spouse does not expect it.

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 Posted on September 14,2017 in Paternity

In many cases, the paternity of a newborn child can be established very simply: if the mother’s husband is a witness to the process, more often than not, he is the child’s father. However, there are many more complex instances where paternity is not so easily settled, and there are many situations where specifically being named as a child’s father confers certain rights on a man that he would not otherwise have. If you are in a position where the paternity of your children is in doubt, there are steps you can take to remedy that situation.

How Paternity Is Established

In Illinois, paternity is established via one of four methods:

1. The mother and putative father being married at the child’s conception, birth, or both;
2. Both parents signing and submitting a Voluntary Acknowledgment of Paternity (VAP) form to the appropriate authority;

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 Posted on September 06,2017 in Visitation

In Illinois, only parents are entitled to visitation rights with their children. However, in certain situations, non-parent relatives such as grandparents, great-grandparents or siblings may petition for visitation rights. Whether or not they will be granted depends on the facts of the case, but the law does allow for such considerations in certain situation.

Statutory Authority

The Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act grants parents the right to visitation—now known as parenting time—with their children. This right is generally upheld in all but the most extreme circumstances. Illinois courts tend to be of the opinion that children are best served by having both parents in their lives and have expressed this belief even in cases where one or both parents are incarcerated or profoundly mentally ill. The only criteria the court uses to deny parenting time is if it finds that spending time with a particular parent would endanger the child’s physical, mental, or emotional health.

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 Posted on September 06,2017 in Divorce

Sometimes, a crisis in a marriage can be averted. It is not unheard of for a couple that has decided to divorce to discuss their issues and come to a collective decision to try again. While this most often happens while the divorce is still in process, it does happen—in extremely rare circumstances—that some couples remarry after divorce. While there are little to no statistics available on how often this succeeds, it is still something to be aware of, as things cannot simply go back to the way they were.

Before Divorce Is Final

If you and your spouse determine that you intend to give your marriage another try while your divorce is still pending, there are very few legal options you need to exercise. Divorce proceedings are, essentially, prolonged negotiations - nothing is set in stone until the final decree is signed by a judge. While filing fees and attorneys’ costs may be non-refundable, bulk of the work to be done if you reconcile before your divorce is final will primarily be emotional.

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 Posted on August 28,2017 in Child Custody

Battles over child custody—also called parental responsibilities—are difficult enough in this day and age without the tactics that many resort to when their spouse comes out as LGBTQ. It is sadly not uncommon for an ex-spouse to use one’s sexuality or gender identity to assert a claim that a former partner may be an “unfit” parent. In the heat of an acrimonious divorce, for you to be aware of the current attitudes and know how it could affect you and your children.

What Is the Standard in Determining Parenting Time?

Illinois law dictates that the standard to be used in determining whether a parent should receive visitation—now known as a parenting time—is “the best interests of the child.” More specifically, that granting parenting time is generally in a child’s best interest unless the parent’s presence would “endanger seriously the child’s physical, mental, moral or emotional health.” These are all somewhat subjective, but in practice, the reality is that Illinois courts are extremely reluctant to ban all contact between a parent and child.

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 Posted on August 21,2017 in Child Support

If support orders are issued in a divorce proceeding, they must be obeyed, and there is very little room for equivocation or delay. However, despite the courts’ clear edicts, sometimes they are ignored by the individuals who are required to pay them. When that happens, the recipient can get a court order to compel payment through a few possible means. The most common of these, especially in regard to child support, is wage garnishment.

Definitions and Practices

Wage garnishment is a tool used across the nation when an overdue bill or debt needs to be collected. This is achieved by completing relevant paperwork with the debtor’s employer, and having a portion of the debtor’s take-home pay “garnished,” or held, to put toward the debt.

In Illinois, this is the main tool used to collect overdue and delinquent child support. Since the passage of the Family Support Act, the federal government has mandated that each child support order be accompanied by an order of automatic withholding. This means that most often, a parent’s child support obligations will simply be deducted from his or her paycheck. However, if a parent has no income, or loses their job, automatic withholding ceases to be effective. Garnishment achieves a similar outcome to automatic withholding, but the difference is that it is far more limited in scope than a withholding order.

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 Posted on August 16,2017 in Divorce

The issue of taxes is often a difficult one during a divorce. Taxes may become especially challenging if both spousal and child support are ordered to be paid by the same party. However, Illinois permits what is referred to as unallocated support or separate maintenance, which can greatly lessen a paying parent’s tax bill while ensuring that their obligations are still met. If you are in a precarious financial situation, it may be to your benefit to learn more about unallocated support.

Tax Burdens on Support Payments

Under federal law, child support payments are not taxable income for their recipient parent, nor are they tax deductible for the paying parent. This is due, in large part, to the fact that federal tax law permits one parent to claim the child or children as dependents for other tax credits. Spousal maintenance payments, however, are deductible by the payer and taxable as income for the recipient. This can create a tax disparity for the payer, because very often, child support in Illinois will total much more than the amount of spousal maintenance.

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 Posted on August 14,2017 in Paternity

In Illinois, most of the time, paternity is not assumed when a child is born to unmarried parents. In most such cases, it must be affirmatively acknowledged. It is imperative that you understand how the law applies to your situation so that you do not wind up with limited rights to see your children. A failure to acknowledge paternity at the appropriate time can severely restrict your right not only to see them, but to exercise your rights with regard to their lives and welfare.

How to Acknowledge Paternity

The procedure to formally acknowledge paternity differs, depending on whether or not you are married to the child’s mother. If you are married to her, you are by law presumed to be the father of any children born to her during your marriage, unless you complete a Denial of Paternity form at the appropriate time (usually immediately following the child’s birth). If you are not married to her but she is married to someone else, her husband must complete the Denial of Paternity. In addition, both you and the mother must sign a Voluntary Acknowledgment of Paternity. Failure to do so will place the husband by default as the father. If neither you nor the mother is currently married, you must both complete the VAP, but there is generally less of a hurry.

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 Posted on August 11,2017 in Child Custody

Illinois courts are generally in favor of children having both parents in their lives, if at all possible. However, sometimes a parent is simply not an acceptable choice, for any number of reasons, to have any parental responsibilities. In other cases, a parent actively chooses to relinquish their parental rights. If either situation does become reality for you, there is a procedure in place to terminate your former spouse’s parental rights.

Juvenile Court Terminations

If there is evidence that a parent has been involved in criminal activity, the state can initiate proceedings vie the juvenile court system and the Department of Children and Family Services to terminate parental rights. There are very few situations where an Illinois court will terminate parental rights if another person is not standing in to adopt the child—terminating a father’s parental rights in favor of an adoptive stepfather, for example—but a pattern of criminal activity or proof of child abuse and/or significant neglect is one.

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