California Divorce What Is Family Support
Today, we’re talking about family support.
So when you get divorce there has to be alimony, spousal support whatever you want to call it but there’s also this thing called family support.
Now it doesn’t come up too often but we just had a client of ours asking about it.
So I want to get the video, I realized we hadn’t discuss the family support issues.
Sorry my screen just went away there. I just want to keep rolling now.
So family support. And I’m reading this right off the Franchise Tax Board Publication that put out information basically frequently asked questions about alimony.
And make sure you watch all the series of videos. We’re going to do about 12 or so videos about on spousal support and how it’s treated tax wise.
So it’s a very good series of videos here. This question says, ‘I get family support from my former spouse. Is that considered taxable income?’
And the answers says here, ‘If the Divorce Decree or Separation instrument provide for family support but no amount of the family support is designated as child support then the entire payment is considered alimony.’
So let me just kind of put that in plain English. A typical spousal support or typical let’s say judgment or marital settlement agreements in California, if you have support and child support included in your Divorce it will break that up separately.
Let’s say X amount as for spousal support, X amount for child support. In a family support order it is just family support.
So it could be just a fix amount for family support not specifying how much is alimony, how much is child support.
Now in area this can get kind of complicated but basically they says if it says you’re paying a thousand dollars for family support and it doesn’t say of these a certain amount is child support, then they’re saying that the entire amount is considered alimony.
And the reason that’s important to know is because alimony as per the Franchise Tax Board is a taxable event.
So the payor spouse can deduct that amount from spousal support whereas for family support and it could be treated as alimony and the person receiving it would claim that income.
So we’re doing a lot of videos about right now in these series of alimony and spousal support in California and how it’s affected from a tax perspective.
We’re taking this information right off the Franchise Tax Board for the State of California website.
We’re not tax advisers or tax attorneys or even family law attorney so please don’t take any of these as legal advice.
But do feel free to call us if you need assistance with your Divorce in California.
I’ll be happy to provide you a free phone consultation at 661-281-0266 or simply go to Divorce661.com for more information.
