How Alimony is Calculated in Florida?
Unfortunately in our day and time, divorce rates are on the rise and more marriages are ending than ever. This can be a very painful time for everyone involved both mentally and emotionally. Once you decide to go through with your divorce, one party of the separated couple will be responsible for paying alimony to the other person for a set amount of time. The amount of alimony that you have to pay will differ from state to state and is always calculated differently in every state. If you are a Florida resident, then this is a guide to knowing what your alimony payment will look like and will give you a heads up on how the amount of alimony you have to pay will be calculated.
What recent changes have been made to Florida Alimony
As of January of 2019, the government made changes to the Florida alimony standards and made it so that it would no longer be a tax-deductible payment. The person who is ordered to pay alimony is no longer allowed to take a deduction off of the alimony that they pay. This means that the amount the Floridian is required to pay in alimony will go up by quite a bit and become much more expensive. However, at the same time, the alimony payments that the other party receives can no longer be counted as income.
How is the Alimony calculated
The amount of alimony that the responsible party in the former couple is required to pay is going to vary from situation to situation.
How much does the other party in the former couple need?
The first factor that the lawyers and the judge will look at when determining how much alimony the responsible party s going to be required to pay is how much the other person in the former couple needs. Let us say, for example, that the ex-wife spent her years in the marriage as a stay at home wife or mother. After the couple separates, the wife will then need a substantial amount of income in order to survive. The Alimony lawyer will look at how much she needs to survive and come up with a fair number for the other spouse to pay.
What is their ability to pay
It is not only the one spouse’s situation that the lawyers will take a look into to calculate how much alimony is required to be paid. They will also look at the income of the other spouse and determine their ability to pay. They will take 30% of the payer’s gross income and subtract it from 20% of the payee’s income and come to a fair number for an alimony settlement.
There are no set rules and guidelines in Florida when it comes to how much alimony will be required to be paid. However, the courts will take a look at the surplus and the deficit of each party in order to calculate a fair number of how much alimony should be awarded.