In December of 2017, Congress passed a landmark tax reform bill, and this update to the law made a number of significant changes that will affect nearly everyone in the United States. One key change that people should be aware of is how spousal maintenance (also known as alimony or spousal support) will be taxed.

Taxes on Spousal Support

Following divorce, the spouse who earns a higher income may be required to make maintenance payments to the lower-earning spouse, with the amount and duration of these payments being based on the income each spouse earns and the length of the marriage. Under current law, maintenance is tax-deductible for the paying spouse, and it is considered taxable income for the receiving spouse.

Every year, the divorce rate spikes in the month of January. This may be because divorcing parents want to keep their family together for one last holiday season before dissolving their marriage, or because the stress of the holidays pushed an unhappy marriage past the breaking point. But whatever the reason, the new year offers many people an opportunity to end a relationship that is not working and move on to a new stage of their life.

If you are considering divorce, have begun the divorce process, or are close to finalizing your divorce, here are a few resolutions you may want to consider making in the new year:

1. Get your finances in order - Divorce can cause a great deal of financial upheaval, and it is easy to lose track of your financial situation as attorney’s fees, moving expenses, and other costs pile up. As you adjust to a new living situation and surviving on a single income, the new year offers the chance to take stock of your income and expenses and prepare for how to maintain financial security after your divorce.

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When a marriage is falling apart, every member of the family will be going through a great deal of emotional turmoil, and during this chaotic time, spouses will often be focused on their legal requirements, their finances, their changing living arrangements, and their own emotional needs. However, divorce can be especially hard on children, and parents should be aware of the potential negative effects that the end of their marriage can have on their children, including:

1. Emotional distress - Children of divorcing parents are likely to experience a great deal of anxiety and stress, especially when they are at a young age. Children often cannot fully understand why their lives are changing, and they may blame themselves for the end of their parents’ marriage. This emotional distress can lead to mood swings, irritability, depression, behavioral problems, and lower academic performance.

2. Parental relationships - Children who are used to having both parents in their lives may struggle to adjust to a new situation in which they spend less time with each parent. While some couples are able to work out an agreement in which children spend equal time with each parent, in most cases, children will spend the majority of time with one parent, and their relationship with the other parent may suffer.

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The holidays can be a stressful time for anyone, but this season is often especially difficult for people who have recently ended a long term relationship. Divorce will require major changes in a person’s life, upending their living situation, their finances, and their relationships with family and friends.

The emotional fallout of these changes and the loneliness that can come with being newly single can make it hard to cope during what is supposed to be a happy time of the year.

If you have recently divorced or are in the process of ending your marriage, these tips can help you get through the holiday season and begin the new year on the right foot:

When parents decide to divorce, the ensuing changes to their lives can be highly disruptive and stressful for the entire family. As children adjust to living in two separate households, it is important for both parents to be involved in their lives and provide them with the emotional support they need. Unfortunately, this can be difficult when one parent retains sole or primary custody of children.

Studies Show the Benefits of Equal Parenting Time

For many years, it was assumed that it was in children’s best interests to live primarily with one parent, and that dividing time between two households would cause them stress. However, a number of recent studies have found the opposite to be true. Researchers in Sweden found that children in shared parenting arrangements had less stress, fewer psychological problems, and better physical health than children who lived primarily with one parent.

The holiday season can be a magical time, offering chances for families to come together, give gifts, celebrate traditions, and be thankful for everything they have. Unfortunately, this can make the season difficult for parents who have recently experienced divorce, since they will likely be coping with loneliness, struggling with change, and remembering the good times they had with their families in the past.

While the season can be emotionally challenging, divorced parents can make the most of the holidays by following these tips:

1. Understand your parenting plan - Your final divorce decree will include a schedule for parenting time, not just describing which parent children will spend time with on an everyday basis, but specifying how holidays and school vacations will be divided between parents. Knowing what your parenting plan says will help you avoid any conflicts with your ex-spouse with regard to whom children will be spending holiday time.

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For many couples, maintaining a good relationship throughout their marriage requires a great deal of hard work. A variety of factors can affect whether a couple is likely to divorce, including the stress of raising children. A recent study looked at the data surrounding marriages, children’s births, and divorces and found some interesting results.

Daughters Increase the Risk of Divorce

Various studies have shown that parents in the United States whose oldest children are female are slightly more likely to divorce. A recent study found that this is true in other countries as well by examining data from more than two million marriages in the Netherlands over 10 years. According to researchers, divorce is equally likely for parents of boys and girls until children are 12 years old. However, when children are between the ages of 13 and 18, parents are more likely to divorce if their first-born child is a girl.

When parents decide to end their marriage in divorce, the split can be difficult for everyone involved. During divorce, children often struggle to come to terms with the end of their parents’ relationship and adjust to living in two different households.

While divorcing parents are often focused on resolving legal issues and determining what their life will look like post-divorce, they should also be sure they understand how their children will be affected.

Divorce’s Effects and Children’s Age

The process of divorce can be difficult and contentious, especially when spouses disagree about how to divide assets and debts and/or allocate parental responsibility. While a lot of attention is paid to issues like the best interests of the children of divorcing parents and what is considered marital property, one issue that sometimes gets overlooked during divorce is what to do with family pets.

While cats, dogs, and other animals are not human, many people consider them to be part of the family, and treating them like another piece of property to divide often does not seem right.

Illinois law was recently updated to reflect these attitudes, and some additional considerations are now given to pets when determining their ownership during divorce.

While some people see the end of their marriage approaching, others find that divorce is unexpected. But whether they are ready to divorce or not, people will often be blindsided by the legal complexities and financial costs of dissolving their marriage.

Divorce can be expensive and difficult, but one way to make the process easier is through mediation. If couples are able to work together with a trained mediator to resolve the issues in their divorce, they can complete the process much more quickly and efficiently. 

Consider the following four benefits of divorce mediation:

When parents end their marriage, they must continue work together to co-parent their children after divorce. However, their parental roles and responsibilities can be complicated if domestic violence occurred during the marriage.

While it is essential to protect the safety of spouses and children who have suffered violence or abuse, it is also important for children to have a relationship with both parents. But how well are parents able to work together following violent situations?

A recent study from researchers at the University of Illinois looked at mothers who had experienced domestic violence during the first year after their divorce to see whether they had any issues or conflicts while acting as co-parents with their ex-spouse. 

Whether parents are married, divorced, legally separated, or were never married, they both have an obligation to support their children financially. Failure to pay court ordered child support can result in serious consequences, and parents should be aware of the steps that courts can take to enforce a child support order and punish a parent for non-payment.

Illinois Child Support Enforcement Law

A person is guilty of the offense of “failure to support” when he or she willfully fails to meet his or her support obligations while he or she has the ability to pay them. Illinois law provides several remedies for parents who do not meet their child support obligations, including:

When parents complete the divorce process, their final divorce decree will specify how parental responsibilities will be allocated, the parents’ schedule for parenting time with their children, and the amount of child support that one parent will pay to the other. But while this is meant to be a permanent agreement (or, if parents were unable to reach an agreement, a judgment by the court), the law recognizes that people’s circumstances change, and a divorce decree may need to be modified at some point in the future.

Following the implementation of Illinois’ updated child support law, which went into effect in July 2017, parents may wonder if their divorce decree should be updated to reflect the new methods for calculating the amount of child support payments. However, before petitioning the court, they should understand when these types of modifications are allowed.

Modifications Require a Substantial Change in Circumstances

When a couple ends their marriage in divorce, the process of separating their lives from each other can be a lengthy, difficult process. Determining how to divide physical property, financial assets, and debts can be a complex matter, and when one or both spouses own a business, this process can become even more complicated.

Spouses who are business owners often have many of their mutual financial assets tied up in the business, making it difficult to divide these assets while keeping the business intact. Taking the following measures can help you ensure that your family-owned business will survive your divorce and that you will be able to maintain financial stability:

• Consider a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement - If you owned a business prior to your marriage, a prenuptial agreement can specify that you will retain ownership in the case of divorce. For a business that was formed after your marriage, a postnuptial agreement can define how ownership will be handled after divorce.

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When your marriage is ending, your life will likely be thrown into chaos as you and your spouse work to separate the many aspects of your lives which have become closely linked over the years of your partnership. During divorce, it is important to understand how your finances will be affected and plan for how you will manage your ongoing budget.

Consider the following tips to get on the right financial foot during divorce proceedings and after your divorce has been finalized:

1. Create a budget - You should make sure you have a full understanding of your income and expenses, including any spousal maintenance or child support payments you pay or receive after the divorce. Additionally, be sure you are accounting for rent, utilities, groceries, credit card bills, vehicle maintenance costs, insurance, and child care costs. Setting everything down in a budget and planning month to month management will ensure that unexpected costs do not arise and cause problems in the future.

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In our modern society, divorce is often unavoidable. But while divorcing couples will need to resolve issues such as the division of assets and debts and the allocation of parental responsibility, reaching a decision on these matters does not have to be contentious.

By using methods of alternative dispute resolution, couples can settle the outstanding issues in their divorce while avoiding costly litigation. 

One of the best ways divorcing couples can work together to reach a settlement is through collaborative divorce (also known as collaborative law). This practice has become more common in recent years, and it has been formally recognized in the state of Illinois through the Illinois Collaborative Process Act, which Governor Bruce Rauner signed into law in August 2017 and which goes into effect on January 1, 2018.

Divorce can cause a great deal of financial upheaval in a couple’s lives, and as parents seek to restructure their finances following the end of their marriage, they will need to continue to provide for their children.

One financial aspect of divorce that parents sometimes neglect is how to pay for their children’s college expenses, especially if they divorce when their children are still young and college is several years in the future.

However, as college approaches, and families begin the process of applying for financial aid, they can take certain steps to ensure that children will be able to receive a college education without breaking the bank:

When a couple ends their marriage in divorce, each spouse should be able to maintain a standard of living similar to what they experienced during their marriage. When one spouse earns more than the other, the lower earning spouse may be eligible to receive spousal maintenance (also known as spousal support or alimony).

While the formula for determining the amount and duration of maintenance is straightforward, courts have some discretion when determining whether maintenance is appropriate. 

Illinois statutes list 14 factors that a judge should consider when deciding whether to grant maintenance:

Today, many couples choose to live together before getting married or even forego marriage altogether, while still combining their finances, intermingling their property, and raising children together. While this type of living arrangement has become more and more common over the past several decades, unmarried couples should understand their rights and take steps to protect themselves in case their relationship ever ends.

Legal Decisions Regarding Cohabitation in Illinois

Illinois does not recognize common-law marriage, and a 1979 decision by the Illinois Supreme Court found that an unmarried person does not have any rights to his or her domestic partner’s property after the relationship ends. When this decision was made, the court stated that it was intended to discourage cohabitation and avoid weakening the institution of marriage.

With all of the do-it-yourself (DIY) divorce guides online, it is no wonder that interest in legal self-representation is increasing. Although a DIY divorce could be effective in some cases, it is often best to retain an attorney who focuses on family law to represent you

Many assume that mediation, one of the alternative ways in which to pursue the divorce process, and other methods for the divorce process do not require an attorney. However, you may wish to hire a lawyer if your divorce case is more complex or requires eventual litigation. In addition, an attorney can help you address your distinct concerns and rights.