If there is a single most important document in connection with your divorce, it would be the statement of net worth. So what is it, and how do you fill it out? A net worth statement is a document prepared at the beginning of a case and, as its name suggests, sets forth your net…
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How Can I Reduce My Maintenance Payments: Should I Pre-Pay Maintenance?

A client recently asked me an interesting question. The client wanted to know if he should pre-pay his spousal maintenance, giving his wife a large cash payment upfront, or should he pay the maintenance out over the course of the term. What is Maintenance? Maintenance, or as it is better known, alimony, is a payment…
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Your Pre-Nup May Be A Ticking Time Bomb

Your New York pre-nup may be a ticking time bomb. Because of last year’s changes to the tax law, a divorce could be much more costly than you bargained for in your prenuptial agreement. The good news is that you still have time to disarm the bomb. Historically, maintenance in New York (alimony everywhere else)…
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Wives in New York Paying Maintenance and Child Support

The times they are a changing. It is now increasingly common to hear ex-wives complain about the amount of spousal maintenance and child support they are paying to the ex-husbands. For years, men were ordered to both pay both spousal maintenance and child support as part of their New York divorce. But, the pendulum has…
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New York Maintenance and The Tax Reform Bill: Alimony Will Not Be Deductible After 2018

The clock is ticking; 2018 will be the last year maintenance in New York (alimony virtually everywhere else will be deductible. The recently enacted tax bill eliminates the tax deduction for the payment of alimony. Historically, maintenance has been deductible to the paying spouse and includable as income to the recipient spouse. Child support, on…
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Tax Bill To Make Divorce More Expensive: Maintenance Not Tax Deductible

Hard to believe, divorce in New York may get even more expensive. The tax bill proposed in the House of Representatives, last week, seeks to eliminate the deduction for alimony payments. The new tax law attempts to eliminate what has been called a “divorce subsidy.” Under the existing law, the party paying alimony may deduct…
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Can a Husband Be Ordered to Pay More Maintenance or Child Support for Refusing to Give a Get?

As part of a divorce in New York, a party must remove all religious barriers to the other parties’ remarriage before a civil divorce is granted. This requirement was enacted to require Jewish men to give their wives a “Get” – a religious divorce. Without the get, a religious Jewish woman cannot remarry or…
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Spousal Maintenance and the “Tax Man”

Divorce sometimes has its bittersweet moments. That certainly applies to payments of spousal maintenance for both the payer and the recipient because of the tax implications. For the party making maintenance payments, the bitterness of parting with your income is sweetened by the fact that the payments are generally tax deductible. This is true whether…
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More Money, More Problems: 3 Big High Net Worth Divorce Mistakes

The stakes are high in any divorce. During a divorce, decisions are made that will affect the course of the rest of your life emotionally, practically, and financially. The stakes are even greater – and more complicated – in a high net worth divorce. Complicated ownership “schemes” of significant and diverse assets can make it…
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