Must Have Order To Deduct California Spousal Support Payments

Today, we’re talking about alimony and spousal support in California and specifically at the State of California Franchise Tax Board put out a publication talking about spousal support and alimony.

And we’re going over a lot of the questions getting this recorded on video so folks have a better understanding of how this works.

And we just shot a video and it was talking about what types of payments do not qualify as alimony.

I went through three or four things the Franchise Tax Board talked about here. And one of them was this that does not qualified as alimony.

Any voluntary payments made before they are written by a Divorce Decree or written agreement.

So right now we handle about 50 divorce cases a month. We do a high volume because we have affordable flat fees.

And we do really great services for folks taking care of the entire process for them from start to finish anywhere in California.

So we see a lot of scenarios of Divorce and what a lot of people do is they file for divorce.

They will move out or not maybe they’ll stay in the residence you know just for financial reasons but they are paying, they’ll do one of two things.

They either the one maintaining the status quo and continue to pay the bills and keep everything going as it was until they finally gets to the point where they divide up their property and come up with spousal support number if that’s the case.

Or let’s say one party moves out and let’s say the spouse that was working and let’s say the other spouse wasn’t they start giving a couple thousand dollars a month or whatever is appropriate in their case.

They start paying an amount to be considered as spousal support and child support.

Well, from what it says that would be considered as voluntary payment and it would not be qualified as alimony or spousal support in California.

And the reason that’s important to note is if you are paying money and there’s no court order and does not considered alimony it’s therefore not tax deductable.

And that’s one of the biggest things with alimony is you can deduct that from your taxes.

So if you paid $2,000 a month for alimony and you have a court order that says so then you can deduct those at the end of the year.

And your spouse receiving the spousal support would have to include that as income and they will be the ones paying the tax on that.

Now the way you can serve estimation this doesn’t, you’re not giving that tax advantage is as soon as you separate call us we can put together what’s called the Stipulation and Order.

So if you’re going to pay a thousand a month or whatever that number is, say, ‘Tim I’m paying a thousand a month.’

The divorce isn’t finalized which could take 6-8-12 months depending on how fast you move through the process.

You’re going to want to get some temporary orders immediately especially regarding alimony so you can get that tax advantage.

So you’re not just writing checks that you’re not going to be able to get any credit for. So this was right directly from the Franchise Tax Board.

We’re not tax advisers. We’re not giving tax advice or legal advice but I want to get this out there because this is how the franchise tax board and the tax treats alimony.

So get that court order as soon as possible so you could take advantage of it’ll be considered of those payments be considered as spousal support and alimony.

Tim Blankenship Divorce661.com, we can put an order together for you as soon as 24 hours.

We also can handle your entire divorce case anywhere in California.

Examples Of Alimony & Spousal Support California Divorce

Today, we’re answering the question what are examples of alimony payments and this is coming directly from the franchise tax board.

I found interesting publication they put out where they answered maybe 12 questions.

It was hard for me to find so I want to get this out on video because it gives and it talks about alimony and spousal support in California from a tax prospective.

So in this particular case they want to describe what other example of alimony payments might be because a typical alimony or spousal support payment is one party paying money, so cash, writing a check, transferring money from one party to the other.

In this they’re saying you don’t necessary have to have a cash transferred. There don’t have to be cash going from one party you know one spouse to the next.

That there can be in this could be payments made to a third party can be considered alimony.

Indirect alimony may include cash payments through a third party to satisfy the obligations of a former spouse such as to provide a residence for a former spouse.

For example rent, mortgage, utilities etc., medical costs payments or other such expenses incurred by the payors former spouse.

So those are ways that you can pay spousal support instead of just having a money payment for alimony or spousal support.

You could pay your spouse’s rent. You could pay your spouse mortgage or portion there of. You could pay the mortgage if and plus alimony or spousal support and that all can be considered spousal support.

And from reading the publication the reason you may want other payments being handled as spousal support has asked this publication from the franchise tax board indicates alimony is tax deductible for the payors spouse and it has to be taxable E-VAT.

So that’s to include in their taxes if you’re receivingspousal support. So the example in this case is if you are a spouse saying ‘Oh why I didn’t know I could pay the rent. Let me pay the rent.’

If you don’t write that up as a spousal support order then you cannot deduct the amount you’re paying for rent.

Let me just make sure that’s clear. If you decide in your divorce, you’re going to pay the mortgage let’s say of your spouse and its $2,000 a month and that’s your agreement.

You guys signed the judgment you’re done and you write a check and you pay the mortgage payment every month, that’s fine.

You know in fact it’ll probably you may even want to work out that you get the mortgage deduction, the interest deduction on that.

But let’s say you didn’t? If you pay $2,000 a month for the house its $24,000 a year you’re not going to be able to deduct that payment if it’s not included as spousal support or alimony.

So being at the franchise tax board says you can use or have this described as alimony if you write it up that way that $2000 you’re paying can be considered as spousal support or alimony which is the same thing.

And you can get that tax deduction when you go to file taxes. So you could find this information on the franchise tech support website.

It was difficult to find it. I definitely want to get this out in video and we’re going to do several more about spousal support and alimony and some of the tax implications going right off the franchise tax board publications.

Tim Blankenship specializing in California Divorce, I hope this was helpful.

Feel free to call me for a free consultation. We handle divorce cases all throughout California 661-281-0266.

 

What Is Alimony | What Is Spousal Support | California Divorce

Today, we’re talking about alimony otherwise known as spousal support more commonly known as spousal support in California.

And I’m taking this information directly from the franchise tax board as well because I want to give folks some information about spousal support.

A little bit of how it works including what the franchise tax board says about how they treat spousal support.

So this video essentially what is alimony and this is what the term has been known as within the courts and those of us in the business.

It’s more frequently referred to as spousal support.

So spousal support where alimony essentially is one spouse paying to another alimony or set amount of money on a monthly basis or by monthly basis or however you want to set that up where maybe the higher wage earner during the marriage is assisting the other party with living expenses and so forth because of a difference in incomes of the parties.

So this could be where one party earns a substantial more income than the other party.

Let us help offset and make it more fair because he had let’s say a non working spouse and then the bread winner through the marriage is they both had realized the benefits of that income.

If they were to divorce and go their separate ways and there’ll be no spousal support obviously the spouse who was not working would have no income whatsoever.

And perhaps they raised the children and so forth and so they shouldn’t be essentially set off with no income just because they didn’t work.

And the courts we’re not lawyers here, we’re not here to give legal advice. Keep that in mind.

But just from what we see keep in mind that the person shouldn’t be punished because they didn’t work and now they have no money.

So this is to help alimony payments to help with that person getting on their feet. Give them time to maybe get educated, go back to school or go back to work and then slowly get on their feet.

And there’s a lot that goes in this spousal support and alimony and how these amounts are determined.  I don’t want to get too deep in to that.

This was just to kind of give you a brief overview of what spousal support or alimony is.

So you know moving forward as far as your right is concerned that’s a whole different story whether you can get it or not but this video is just to discuss what alimony is.

It’s quite simple. It’s just one party paying to the other spouse an amount of money for a specific duration of time for a specific amount.

Tim Blankenship, Divorce661.com specializing in affordable California Divorce.

Which Los Angeles Divorce Court Do I File In?

Today, I want to talk to you about how the courts jurisdiction works for Los Angeles County specifically in how they divide up their branch courts and how you can figure out what court you need to file in.

So the main brain branch of the Los Angeles Superior Court is at Central. So it’s the Central Division in downtown LA.

That’s the main courthouse for the county of Los Angeles. So regardless of where you live in LA County as far as North in Palmdale and Lancaster as far as South at Long Beach as far as East is let’s say Pomona and as far West as LA County goes so West Hills, West Valley area all of you can find out in the Central Courthouse.

That is the main court. Now what the courts have done for convenience over the years as they have branch courts.

So there are courts in San Fernando branch court in Burbank, in Van Nuys etc. Long Beach.

These are branch courts that are there just for each of you. So you don’t have to drive as far to file your divorce case.

So I want to explain how jurisdiction works. So essentially if you’re living close to that courthouse most likely that’s going to be your court.

But we have is client call us saying they wanted to file, they basically send over the paperwork and said we live in X City, but we want to file in the Burbank because one of the spouses work in Burbank.

So it would have been convenient for them to go to the Burbank Courthouse.

The thing here is though have they attempted this on their own which they didn’t they hired us to assist them with their divorce but had they gone to the courthouse they want to go to.

In this case they want to go to Burbank to file their case but they didn’t live within the jurisdiction.

They would simply reject their petition for divorce and then send them to the correct courthouse to file which in this case if you live in Burbank you don’t have to go to Pasadena so you could have filed in Pasadena or in Central.

Part of the easiest way to figure out which court to file is you just give us a call. We can check and see based on your zip code where you should file your case locally.

So go ahead and give us a call for free phone consultation, I’ll be happy to prepare your Divorce case for you 661-281-0266.

 

Burbank Divorce Cases Must Be Filed In Pasadena

Today, we’re talking to the folks in Burbank, California.

So you folks in Burbank that used to file your divorce cases in Burbank, if you don’t know the Burbank Court has shifted their cases their divorce cases, there’s still a court there but they have transferred all their divorce cases to Pasadena.

Now that obviously makes it very inconvenient for folks living in Burbank to file for divorce that have to travel to Pasadena to file their Divorce case, to pick up paperwork, to go to the clerk’s office and finish your case.

So for the folks in Burbank I want to let you know we are a Full Service Divorce Paralegal Firm. We do serve the Burbank area.

We can facilitate your divorce process for you especially since there’s no court serving you for divorce now.

What entails is that we will fill out all the forms for you. We will go to Pasadena and file your case in Pasadena for you.

So you won’t have to travel at Burbank to do so. We’ll take care of preparing all the documents and filing them, serving them.

We’ll take care of all the financial disclosures.

So all the process and procedure of the divorce case we will take care of from start to finish including putting together your judgment which includes assets and debts as far as who’s going to get what property, the children, custody and visitation, spousal support the whole shot we’ll take care of.

If it’s an amicable case you won’t step foot in the court. Not even once. You won’t even know what it looks like because we’ll be the ones going down there and taking care of your divorce for you.

So let us do the hard work for you and take care of the Divorce. You go on with your lives and your jobs and don’t that have affected.

Divorce is big enough changing your life. Let us help you through the confusing and difficult process of divorce in Burbank and take care of it at the Pasadena Courthouse for you.

Feel free to give me a call for a free phone consultation at 661-281-0266.

Are San Fernando Divorce Cases Moving To Chatsworth Court

Today, we’re reporting on a rumor. A pretty valid rumor I would say based on where the information was given.

And that is that the San Fernando Court is going to transfer their divorce cases to Chatsworth.

Now if you’ve been keeping up on things the courts in LA County have been moving a lot of things around.

For instance Burbank cases now go to Pasadena. There are been some court closures and a lot of shifts. Chatsworth court started off as a traffic court.

And now they have all manner of things being heard at the Chatsworth court. So the rumor is that the San Fernando courts divorce cases, family law cases are going to be moving to Chatsworth.

Now it has not been established. I was down at the San Fernando Courthouse last week and one of the court employees indicated that the cases would be moving to San Fernando.

So we’ll see. I had searched on the internet. I didn’t find any indication from the sphericalwebsite or otherwise that indicates there has been any discussion of moving anything from San Fernando to Chatsworth.

But it wouldn’t surprise me if they did do something like that because there’s been a lot of movement within the courts.

And not to mention the San Fernando Courthouse is so busy. They have so many delays. Were talking 60 days to get a court dates.

We’re talking about paperwork and when you submit judgments it’s taking 3-4-5-6 months in some cases to be reviewed and approved.

And they see that the San Fernando Court is one of the busiest branch courts of the Los Angeles County courts.

So I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the case. I’ll let you know further when I learn more if there is anything going on as far as cases had been moving from San Fernando to Chatsworth.

And again, we see this happened quite a bit with courts closing with them shifting cases.

It will be interesting to see how they do this, if they simply take everyone in the jurisdiction of the San Fernando Court and send them to Chatsworth or if they divide up their jurisdiction their area in to zip codes.

Maybe some zip codes will go to Van Nuys. Some will go to Chatsworth. Maybe some will go to Pasadena.

So they’re going to have to divide that up otherwise they’re going to have the entirety of the San Fernando divorce cases going to Chatsworth which will include the Santa Clarita Valley as well.

So stay tune for more of that. I’ll let you know as soon as I know more if the San Fernando court cases are going to Chatsworth.

Feel free to give us a call for a free consultation 661-281-0266.

Nullity Of California Marriage | Unsound Mind | Drug Use | Family Code 2210c

Today, I want to talk to you about a case where we have to take on regarding an annulment.

And it’s interesting because the person filing for the annulment or the person asking for annulment of their divorce is basing their proof on the fact that their spouse is and was of unsettled mind.

So unlike divorce where you don’t need to have any proof or any reasons of why you want to get to divorce when you ask for annulment you have to prove one of the couple issues and I have adjust those in prior videos.

This one specifically we’re talking about unsettled mind is the reason for asking for an annulment.

So short term marriage is you know if it’s a short term marriage a lot of people think probably most of you from watching movies that if you get married in a week or later one you’ll have it annulled and that’s the reason.

But that’s not necessary the case. But these folks do have a short term marriage. It was just a couple of months in length.

And the foundation for asking for the annulment is based on drug use. And so I think this will be an interesting case that we take on.

We’re going to petition the court for the annulment of the divorce and base it on again a claim of unsettled mind due to drug use.

It’s a drug use according to the client with so prevalent that the usage has now caused the spouse to just not be able to make decisions and be totally for the unsettled mind.

So what’s going to be interesting to see as if the court of the judge in this particular case allows the annulment to go through based on the claims of unsettled mind due to drug use.

So I’ll report back on how this case proceeds and if this is something that moves forward and any other particulars of how this case goes down.

But just, so, you know if you are unable to prove your annulment for whatever reason you choose you’re unable to prove to the court or the court doesn’t even believe or justified to allow the annulment what they will do is they will transfer your annulment filing into a petition for divorce.

So you can attempt to get the annulment if the annulment does not go through then they will convert your case to divorce case.

Now we’ve handle several annulment cases and they’ve been successful. Most of them have been for where the parties agreed to the annulment.

So this will be a case where the other party is not going to agree. They’re not going to sign off on this. They’re not going to write a declaration saying they’re of unsettled mind.

So we’re going to petition the court to see if they will buy off on this reason to annul it and otherwise this is going to be converted to a petition for divorce.

We do handle annulment cases as well as divorce, legal separation so forth.

If you need help with any family law related issue please feel free to give us a call at 661-281-0266.

My Husband Cut Off All Money During My California Divorce

This is going to be episode 1 of our Divorce Stories if you will. So we come up of a better name.

People have asked us to discuss some of the things we see. And they hope so they identify with what we’re doing and how we fix the particular circumstances.

So this episode is going to be about what to do when your spouse stops paying you alimony, child support, spousal support, you know, if there’s money issues and things in that nature.

So this was a new client of ours who contacted us her and her husband had recently separated. She was not working.

The husband was working. And he had always paid all the bills and so forth. And they’re separated for about a month or so.

And the husband suddenly and without warning said, ‘I’m not giving you anymore money at all. I’m not going to give you money for the kids. I’m not going to give you any money for foods. I’m not going to give you money for groceries and for anything.’

And so she contacted our office and asked what could be done. Now we see this quite a bit.

This is not uncommon thing when party separated and one spouse is making the money where they suddenly without warning make money inaccessible.

And what we tell folks is if possible maintain the status equal.

If you’re separated, okay, things are not good but you have kids or whether you do or not you have the spouse of many years, you should in good faith you should continue to give them some money.

You know try and maintain the status equal even if you’ve moved out you know paying the bills, it still have to get paid and so forth.

Well this person cut off the money entirely. They had kids. No money for gas, foods, nothing, not even for their rent and withdrew all the money from the account.

And this person had a few dollars left in the bank account you know contacted us for assistance and asked what we could do.

Well, number one, the first thing we can do is that for parties are in agreement we can put together a Stipulation Order, a Stipulation and an Order.

Parties could stipulate which simply means agree out of court to a set amount and then the parties have an agreement is writing signed by the parties signed by the judge and they’re good to go.

However, in this particular case where one party totally cuts off income completely basically closed all the accounts and removes all the money, obviously, this is something that’s not going to go by agreement.

So what we had to do in this particular case is file what’s called a Request for Order. What it is, it’s a motion you file with the court to get a court date.

So that the parties can go to court so the judge can make an order over in many issues.

But in this case it’s going to be over the custody of the children and for alimony. So this person can start getting some money in the door.

That’s the only way you’re officially going to get a court order either by Stipulation or by filing a motion with the court.

And as I mentioned either by agreement you can do the Stipulation but in this particular case it just wasn’t going to happen.

So we had to file a motion immediately, file for Divorce immediately as so, she can in the court as soon as possible to get a court date so she can get an order for child support and alimony and spousal support because without that there really is no order.

There’s nothing foreseen this person to pay her money until there’s an order from the court except for, you know, of course integrity that takes of the person the people involved.

I want to take care of the folks involved in the case. But without that there’s no order of the court then they technically don’t have to pay anything.

So if you need assistance with this, this is something we do. Obviously, we can file motions, get your court dates and draft Stipulations.

I just want to share with you if you find yourself in the similar circumstances those are your options.

And with the courts delays you should file this right away because courts are taking about 45 days 60 weeks before you’ll step in the court for that hearing.

So you’re going to go for good 60-90 days without any money. So like I told this new client of ours we have to get her in that same day the date of the bank accounts were emptied out and get that file with the court and get her court date as soon as possible.

I hope this was informative. And if you need assistance similar to this please feel free to give us a call.

We’ll talk to you soon.

California Divorce Stories Series

If you’ve been through our website or to our blogs or our podcasts or YouTube channel, you’ll know that we have tons and tons of information and content in variety of formats talking about Divorce, talking about Divorce cases, talking about how to fill out the forms.

And recently we’ve had quite a few requests from our YouTube channel of folks asking us to tell more stories, more things that we see on a daily basis because they are starting to relate when I’ll be talking about a Divorce on a particular situation.

They want to identify with that situation or they want to watch and hear different stories and things that we’ve seen because we’re handling so many Divorce cases just with our little Paralegal Firm here in California doing 30-40-sometimes 50 Divorce cases a month.

We see a lot of scenarios and people have asked us to start discussing some of the things we’ve seen and some of the things we’re doing in those particular circumstances.

So we’re going to create a separate section on our YouTube channel.

It will be something called something to the effect of stories about Divorce or something like that, so, you can go there and find that specific section if you’re looking to find information about some of the things we see, things people are going through and things like that.

We’ll be careful not to give all the details as to that person might not know what we’re talking about.  We would never do that of course.

We never want to and definitely want to keep everything confidential.

But the other websites and shows on YouTube that talks about stories like Divorce, court and things like that are very popular.

And we just want to offer some additional information because we know that we see similar circumstances all the time.

Obviously, the parties are different but a lot of similar situations, so, I know if we start discussing this people will pick this up on YouTube and start watching and probably identify with some of these issues.

And then by watching it you’ll be able to see how we handled it and what we did to rectify the situations.

So check out this area of our YouTube channel. We’ll have a totally separate section just for these stories and things we see folks going through and how we handle them and Divorce.

Tim Blankenship with Divorce661.com, if you need assistance with your Divorce, please feel free to give us a call at 661-281-0266.

2 Ways To Establish California Divorce Spousal Support Order

Today, I want to talk to you about the ways to establish an order for like spousal support or child support and really anything for that matter.

So when you’re going through a Divorce and you’re going through the forms and you’re filing your Divorce case, you may need some orders in the interim before your Divorce case is finalized because as you know your Divorce at the soonest that you can get Divorce is six months.

So let’s assume you filed for Divorce and you know a couple of weeks or months have gone by and you need an order for let’s say spousal support.

If you need an order put in place there’s one of two ways you can do this. Number one and the easiest way is you and your spouse can sit down with someone like myself.

We could run the numbers and look out what the DissoMaster says as it pertains to spousal support. And then simply draft what’s called a stipulation and order.

Stipulation order is a document we put together. We would indicate how much the spousal support is going to be. Both of you would sign it.

We’d submit it to the court. The judge will sign it. And that will become the Interim Order until the final order in your case which would be the judgment at the end of you Divorce.

Another way you can do this if you and your spouse do not agree on in and out for spousal support what you can do is file what’s called a Request for Order.

It used to be called an Order To Show Cost. It’s now called a Request for Order. And this is a motion you would file with the court and you get a court date.

And then the court would decide how much that interim or temporary order for spousal support would be.

We can help with either those cases as far as drafting a stipulation, order for spousal support or if you’re not in agreement with your spouse, on the amount we could file for motion and you guys can go to court and let the judge decide on the amount of spousal support is to be ordered in the interim until your case is finalized.

Tim Blankenship with Divorce661.com, we are a Full Service Divorce Paralegal Firm serving all of California. We could work with all the courts in California.

So if you need help establishing order for spousal support or you need to have a stipulation run up or you need to go a hearing because there’s no agreement on spousal support, let us know we can file a motion on your behalf, get your court dates, serve the other spouse.

That is a service that we provide so feel free to give me a call.

We can talk about your specific circumstances which might be the best way to go. Tim Blankenship, 661-281-0266, or, just go to Divorce661.com for more information.