Hello everyone. It’s Chris, Pritt back again with a new topic in West Virginia divorce. Today, we’re going to be continuing with our analysis and discussion of the alimony factors under West Virginia law. In today’s discussion, we will be covering two factors.
To begin, the first factor we’re going to be talking about is the tax consequences to each party. Before a few years ago, the law was such that the person who paid alimony would receive a tax deduction and the person who received alimony would have to pay taxes on the alimony. The law has since changed on a federal level and not the person who is the payer spouse no longer gets a deduction for the alimony. Also, the person who is receiving the alimony no longer has to claim that on their taxes. In some respects, it’s better for the payer spouse but in some ways, it’s not. It has however made things easier in some ways because when you’re trying to figure out whether a person should be paying some sort of alimony, you’re not factoring in the tax deduction that they’re going to get. Furthermore, the person who’s going to be receiving alimony is not going to be paying taxes on that. So it’s in some respects a lot more simple than it was before.
The next factor we’re going to discuss that a court is going to consider is the impact of healthcare costs for both themselves and the children. So let’s say that somebody is going to have a huge bill when it comes to their health insurance. Under the Affordable Care Act, it might be that they get some sort of supplement in the form of a subsidy. A court is going to look at the cost of health insurance for themselves, as well as the children. Now, in most instances, the order will be set up so that the person who is paying the spousal support is also going to be having to cover the cost of the children’s health insurance, to the extent that it is reasonably available to them. This is usually not going to be a factor that adds cost to the payer because this person typically just adds the child to their insurance. However, this is a factor that the court looks at when they’re going through the alimony factors to determine how much a person should be paying in support.
So, this consists of today’s topics. If you have any questions feel free to give us a call at (304) 720 4412 or email us at chris@prittlaw.com.
