Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, and Oklahoma Fathers' Rights & Divorce Law Blog

While tax season may be half a year away, if you are thinking about a divorce or deep in the middle of the process, you should remember to always consider the tax consequence of your choices. There are many elements of a divorce that affect your taxes and many of the financial elements of your divorce should be calculated in light of how taxes will affect the actual sum you may receive.

For instance child support and alimony or spousal support. If you have to pay both of those, you will feel it in your bottom line at the end of the year, as they both will come out of your pocket. As unpleasant as paying alimony may be, it does have one positive factor. It is tax deductable for you. And you will probably pleased to know that your former spouse will have to pay taxes on the portion he or she receives.

One element of a divorce that may be lost in all of the emotional trauma and other legal dealings is the effect of a divorce on a will, life insurance or other estate plans. While it is likely that creating a child custody or parenting plan or dealing with issues related to child support may take much of your attention, you should not ignore these other aspects of your divorce.

If you have young children, it is not surprising that the parts of your divorce that deal with their custody arrangements and how their time will be split between you and your spouse will monopolize much of your attention. The details of your parenting plan are very important to raising your children and will also govern much of your interaction with your former spouse. Issues related to matters like life insurance and wills may seem distant and far less pressing.

Divorce is, at its core, a legal procedure. In dissolves a marriage in Missouri, separating the property and debts of a couple. If you have children, it also contains the custody order or parenting plan that will govern the parent's relationship with their children and with each other until those children reach the age of majority.

Divorce is also an emotional experience made all the more so by the presence of children. As a divorced parent, you have to deal with your emotional feelings toward your former spouse and with your children in your new relationship as a part-time single parent.

Divorce is typically a significantly disruptive event for everybody in the family, both couples and their children. Certainly, children are particularly vulnerable in the divorce process, and need the emotional and financial support of both parents during and after the process. The arrangement a couple has regarding parenting time can make a difference.

Under state law, there are two different categories of custody a family court has to look at when determining custody arrangements: legal custody and physical custody. The difference is that physical custody concerns which parent has possession and care of the child at what times, whereas legal custody refers to decision-making rights and responsibilities.