Divorce & Marriage Issues

Generally, if you have a 401(k) retirement account and get divorced, your spouse will probably be entitled to a share of the money. The money that accumulates in a retirement account during marriage is considered a marital asset. Marital assets are divided between the divorcing spouses. The formula for dividing marital assets depends partly on the laws of the state in which you live and partly on your specific circumstances. In community property states, marital assets in general are split 50-50. Currently, the community property states are Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. In equitable distribution states, marital assets are divided equitably. The ultimate decision of what is fair is made by the court in your state. Generally, the court determines how much of your 401(k)retirement plan is a marital asset by dividing the number of years you have been married by the number of years you have been a plan member.

Generally, if you qualify for Medicare coverage based on your own employment record, the coverage can never be cancelled. If Medicare insurance is based on your spouse's employment history, you might lose it when you get divorced. The key factor Medicare will consider is the length of the marriage. If you qualified for coverage based on your spouse's employment and remained married for at least 10 years, the Medicare coverage will stay with you even after you are divorced. If you were married for less than 10 years and did not work long enough to qualify for you own Medicare insurance, Medicare can drop you from its program.

There are many factors to clarify before you claim your child as a dependent. Generally a special rule favoring the custodial parent applies where divorced or separated parents together, provide more than half the child's support.
The custodial parent will meet the dependency support test even if she did not pay half the child's support.
The parents may arrange for the non-custodial parent to claim the child if IRS Form 8332 is signed by the custodial parent and supplied with the non-custodial parents tax return. Form 8332 is a waiver of claiming the exemption and the exemption waiver can be used for that year only, or for future years as well. Speak to your local CPA about the other criteria in claiming the child and about Form 8332.

If you did not live with your spouse for the last 6 months of the current tax year and you maintained a household for your dependent child, then you may file as a "Head of Household" filing status.
Head of household filing status is better than married filing separately or single. You should speak to your local CPA prior to filing your tax return.

No.The filing of joint or separate estimated payments does not mean that you are committed to filing that way. However, you will need to advise the IRS as to how to allocate the estimated payment. Often this can be an area of difficulty when individuals are going through a divorce and have decided to file separately after making joint estimated tax payments.

"Community property" laws mean that in a legal marriage each spouse legally owns half of the income and property of each other, even if legal title is held by only one spouse. Your tax return preparation is affected by whether you live in a "community property" state. We recommend you contact a CPA in your area for additional information as to how these rules affect you directly.

When both spouses are income earners, the tax they pay when they file a joint return is usually greater than the tax they would pay separately if they were still single. This is referred to as the marriage penalty. When you are married you cannot choose to file as single. You must file either jointly with your spouse, or file "married, filing separately". Filing separately from your spouse is usually even more costly.

No. If you are married on the last day of the year, you must file either married filing jointly or married filing separately. You are not allowed to file as single.

No. If you are married (as of the last day of the year),you may elect to file using the status of married Jointly or married Separately. Generally, separate tax returns may be more beneficial and save both people money, especially when both people have earnings and taxable income, and high medical or miscellaneous itemized deductions. Filing separately may allow more of the phased-out itemized deductions which are based on the taxpayer(s) Adjusted Gross Income.