Dividing Retirement Accounts in Virginia Divorce One of the biggest assets that we divide in divorce are retirement accounts. Whether we’re talking about IRAs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s, pensions, stock options, TSPs, or any other type of account, if they were earned during the marriage, they’re marital property and subject to division in any action for divorce. Retirement is actually (usually!) an easy area of law, because a formula is applied. You’re entitled to 50% of what was earned during the … [Read more...]
Tax Consequences in Virginia Divorce in 2020
Tax Consequences in Virginia Divorce I’ve written about tax consequences in divorce before, but alas – the law has changed again! It happens, from time to time, which is part of why it’s so important to be sure of where you’re getting information when you search for it online. You need to make sure that you’re not blindly trusting nameless, faceless, dateless information that you find just any old place, even if it answers your question exactly. If you were to read this blog that I wrote … [Read more...]
Virginia Spousal Support: New Tax Laws
Spousal support is a pretty loosey goosey area of law anyway; though there are “guidelines” we can use to calculate an appropriate level of spousal support, those guidelines aren’t binding on any of the courts in Hampton Roads. So, unlike child support, spousal support amounts (and more than that, the duration of a spousal support award, too) are fluid. There’s not a lot of consistency from one case to the next. It can depend a lot on factors beyond just the incomes of the parties (though, of … [Read more...]
Taxes in Divorce
I’m not a tax attorney. In fact, if I’m being 100% honest, I really don’t know all that much about tax law, except that it is complex and constantly changing. As a family law attorney, though, sometimes tax related issues come up in my practice. Though I don’t pretend to understand everything about tax law (in fact, far, far from it), I do know a couple of things. If you’re preparing to go through a divorce (or even a custody case), there are a couple of things that I CAN tell you about tax … [Read more...]
Avoiding Taxes With Spousal Support Awards
If you’re feeling like spousal support awards really aren’t all that generous, you’re not alone. Spousal support is one of those things that, in my practice, varies widely. The law governing spousal support is far from clear, too, so even determining whether someone will receive spousal support is difficult and often convoluted. We have to look at a lot of different factors, some of which are pretty loosey goosey, if I do say so myself. There’s no hard and fast, black and white, bright line … [Read more...]
