The court usually reserves permanent support for long-term marriages. Either spouse can request post-divorce alimony , but the court requires the requesting spouse to prove that it's necessary before it will move forward in the process. Unlike spousal support and alimony pendente lite, the court does not use a formula to calculate post-divorce alimony. Instead, judges must evaluate the following factors when deciding the type, duration, and amount of alimony:. At the end of the day, judges have broad discretion when deciding the final terms of an alimony award.
If you and your spouse would like to maintain control over your support order, you can negotiate the terms on your own and then submit your written agreement to the court. Judges will typically honor any alimony agreement you make as long as it's fair to both spouses. Spousal support terminates when one spouse files for divorce. Alimony pendente lite ends after the judge finalizes the divorce. Short-term post-divorce alimony ends on a date set by the judge or when a specific event occurs.
For example, the court may order you to pay rehabilitative support until your former spouse completes a degree program. Permanent support is rarely indefinite, but if the judge doesn't set an end date, it will continue until the court orders otherwise, or when:. Either spouse can ask the court to change or terminate an alimony award, but the court will only review the case after the requesting spouse proves that, since the last order, there is a change of circumstances that is substantial and continuing to make the current order unreasonable.
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The information on this website is for general information purposes only. Nothing on this site should be taken as legal advice for any individual case or situation. This information is not intended to create, and receipt or viewing does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship. Is There Alimony in Pennsylvania Law? How Is It Calculated?
Practice Areas. Most Recent Blog Posts. Pennsylvania Durable Power of Attorney. Schedule a Case Evaluation Today. Most alimony awards in Pennsylvania now have a finite duration. It may be a certain number of years, or a defining event such as retirement, that causes the payment to terminate, and the duration to be fulfilled. This type of alimony is paid by the higher earning spouse to the lower earning spouse in order to ease the transition from married to single.
And allow both parties to live in a manner roughly equivalent to each other post-divorce. Let's say you and your soon-to-be-ex decided during the marriage that you were going to work, while she or he went to medical school and was a dependent spouse. So you supported them while they were getting their education by paying all the household bills, their tuition bills, and generally keeping the financial ship afloat. Now they graduated, met someone else, and want a divorce.
That's where reimbursement alimony comes in. Reimbursement alimony in PA recognizes the contribution you or your ex-spouse made to the household, and allows you to recover some of those expenditures. Joe is passionate about helping couples avoid the destruction of attorney-driven litigation and specializes in helping couples resolve the issues required for divorce -peacefully, fairly and cost-effectively.
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You can read more about how we use cookies in our Privacy Policy. This website contains materials protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. You're at the crossroads of a divorce in Pennsylvania and your mind is spinning with anxiety and worries as you lose sleep thinking about: Whether or not you'll be able to afford to keep the house; Whether or not you'll be able to pay the bills; Whether or not you'll be able to get health insurance coverage; And whether or not you'll have enough to save for your retirement.
All of these fears are typical in a divorce especially if you've been the dependent spouse and they all have one thing in common: Money. And that's PA alimony. Why Does Pennsylvania Have Alimony? Which home do you think the kids would rather spend time in? There are a few things you need to recognize about the challenges of determining alimony in PA: The law is extremely vague on how to resolve this issue. The State of Pennsylvania provides very little in the way of guidance; Since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act TCJA passed in has eliminated the deduction of alimony payments for payors and recipients are no longer required to report payments as taxable income, long-standing tactics used to foster agreement are no longer useful; While on the surface, it might appear as if this tax change benefits the recipient and hurts the payor, it actually negatively impacts both parties; With news of record government deficits due to Covid, and a new president in the White House, calls to repeal the TCJA may grow louder throughout , once again reversing the tax treatment of alimony; This topic of alimony in Pennsylvania has less to do with guidelines or formulas and more to do with money and negotiation; There is more than meets the eye on this issue and this topic is much too complex and emotional for you to try to resolve on your own.
You may have heard that there is an alimony formula in Pennsylvania. Determining alimony is done using a series of 17 factors, and not by mathematical formula.
So now let me ask you a question What do you notice about these PA alimony factors? Leaving you no choice but to negotiate it. This Video has been updated for the changes in the laws in Effective the federal government changed the alimony laws to eliminate the deductibility of alimony and that led Pennsylvania to change the laws on how alimony is calculated.
This video is going to explain how its calculated post-January 1 st, Maybe you and your spouse separated, maybe you have moved into different homes, but nobody has filed for divorce yet but one of you is seeking spousal support. Third, and this is new for and beyond.
Alimony is going to be calculated before child support. In the past, if you had minor children that were going to be subject to a child support order that was calculated first, and then alimony. That is now flipped as of Whether or not you have children you are going to calculate alimony first, and then if you have children then you will go on to calculate the child support.
The way spousal support and APL are calculated in Pennsylvania is pursuant to a mathematical formula. Just to be clear, the obligor is the person with the higher income and the obligee is the person with the lower income.
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