What happens if the spouse who is responsible for providing for child support, maintenance and other support passes away? To ensure these payments are able to be made include in your Stipulation of Settlement that the spouse responsible has enough life insurance to meet these financial obligations. Once you have agreed on child support and/or maintenance, you need to calculate the total amount due including the final payment. Basic child support can be calculated and any pro rata add-ons...

The starting point for the calculation of child support is the previous year’s tax returns. However, there are other factors which may lead the Court to enhance or adjust income when determining the proper amount of child support. For instance, Courts will look to your most recent pay stubs or your year to date income. The reason the Court will consider this year’s income is that there may be a dramatic change in earnings since the filing of your latest tax return. For instance, if you...

When one spouse works off the books or in a predominately cash business, there is the fear of an inability to capture that person’s true income. While it is true, without records and reliable tax returns figuring out a person’s true income will be challenging, there are things you can do to approximate income for support purposes. First, you are your own best asset in these situations. You know approximately the cost of your mortgage and carrying costs each month. You know what type of...