After you get a divorce, you have to make multiple changes in your personal business matters. Chief among them is how to handle your tax filings after you are no longer married. Fortunately, most of the changes you need to make are easy. However, you and your former spouse must agree on some aspects, particularly if you have children together. The following are some things you need to know before you file your taxes after you get divorced.
What Is Your Marital Status?
Since you are divorced, you may automatically assume that you do not file your taxes as a married person. Timing is everything when it comes to your marital status. If your divorce took place prior to the end of the calendar year but did not finalize until after the calendar year, you have to file your taxes as a married person. If your divorce was finalized in the prior calendar year, you do not have to file as a married person. You have to be sure to get this timing correct to avoid any tax problems later on.
Do Child Support Payments Factor into Your Taxes?
The transactions of child support payments will impact your taxes based on whether you pay or receive the money. If you pay the child support payments, they are not deductible from your income. If you are the recipient of child support payments, the payment is not taxable, so you are not responsible for paying taxes on those transactions.
How Are Alimony Payments Impacted?
Just like child support payments, your tax situation depends on your disposition in an alimony payment transaction. If you receive the alimony payments, it is taxable income and you have to declare the money on your tax form. If you make the alimony payments, they are deductible from your income.
Who Can Claim Your Children as Dependents?
When you divorce, both of you cannot claim your children as dependents on your taxes in the same tax year. You and your former spouse must make arrangements as to how you will handle the dependents after your divorce. There are several ways you can do this fairly. You can each take turns each year claiming the children as dependents. If you have more than one child, you could each claim one, but not the same children. If one of you has primary custody of the children, chances are that parent will claim the children. Your divorce decree should include your plans for how to claim your children on tax forms after the marriage is dissolved.
For more information, contact a divorce lawyer.
You love your family. You want your kids to have what is best, and you are willing to fight for them to the very end. Thankfully, there are professionals out there who are able to support you and do the same. They're called family lawyers. Although they typically handle a lot of divorce cases, you can call upon them for other family-related legal needs, too. They oversee adoptions, draft custody agreements, and so much more. We hope you will read the articles on this blog, which delve deeper into these topics. You'll emerge knowing more about hiring such an attorney.