Usually judges order more alimony for longer marriages; the longer the marriage, the more alimony a judge will order. A judge can decide how much a spouse should be earning. The judge can make an alimony order that is different from the limits. The judge must decide that the a different order is necessary. He or she must write the reasons for the differences into the order. The judge can order a different amount, a different time, or both, for the following reasons:.
See General Laws Chapter , section 53 e. You have the right to an interpreter. You may be able to get free legal help from your local legal aid program. Or email a question about your own legal problem to a lawyer. How do judges decide about alimony?
Show Endnotes Hide Endnotes. How do judges decide the kind of alimony to order? In states that do use a calculator, the law may provide for deviations. The estimates returned from our alimony calculator are for educational purposes only. You should consult with a local attorney if you think you are entitled to receive alimony or you are expecting to pay alimony.
Alimony Calculator. How to Calculate Spousal Support using Alimony Calculator To calculate alimony or spousal support you will need the following information: Your gross yearly income.
Gross income is income before taxes. Your net yearly income. Net income is income after taxes. The amount that you or your spouse pays in child support for children that are the result of a prior relationship.
The amount of child support you pay or receive for children of your relationship. Length of marriage. Payment Terms Alimony awards may be paid as a lump sum or in monthly installments. You take the lower of those two numbers and that is going to be the annual maintenance number.
Next, we can look at the formula with minor children. The higher-earning spouse never wants to pay maintenance. My spouse is agreeing to waive maintenance. Just keep that in mind. Everyone knows about it. You are not actually going to be hiding anything from them.
Moving onto the formula. With minor children, the formula is similar, the percentages are just a little different. So you hold that number. Then use the same Step 2 formula as above. That would be the monthly maintenance order in that case. Of course, the reason it is lower is because then you go on and calculate what the child support would be. Then, of course, everyone wants to know what the duration is. New York has guidelines as to the duration of maintenance as well.
One thing to keep in mind with regard to all of the calculations is that they are all subject to deviation based on different factors. I mentioned them before, ages, health, contributions to the marriage, differences in earning capacities.
There is also a catch-all, so the court can really take into consideration anything, so there is a lot of room for deviation, especially in higher-income cases. The final thing I want to note is that in there were changes to the federal tax code and and maintenance or alimony is no longer deductible to the payor and no longer includible to the payee.
Many states have changed their formula to account for that tax shift. New York has not done so. As you have probably noticed by now, maintenance guidelines in New York are purely mathematical and do not take into account the individual circumstance of each family.
This often results in maintenance awards that make little financial sense in reality. Fortunately, the law allows couples to opt-out of using the maintenance guidelines calculations in private agreements, and such agreements do not need to be approved by the courts.
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