Making sure a settlement is made to protect your tax interests can ease the pain of a divorce slightly; however it is always going to be a painful process no matter what. Following are some tips that could make the whole process a lot easier.
Number One: You can negotiation tax exemption
The dependency exemption is usually one of the wearisome issues that has more emotional meaning to the client than financial. If the decree of the divorce does not mention anything about the dependency exemption, then it will remain with the parent who has primary custody. As much as a parent who has custody will not want to be relieved of the exemption, litigation is an expensive option.
Number two: Don’t Waste an Exemption
If you have a too low or too high income and have tax exemption most will class it as a wasted exemption. To put it in simple terms, there can be no deduction if there is no income. On the other side, those will large incomes phase out this extra bit of tax exemption anyway.
Number three: Deductible Fees
Because people going through a divorce are usually in less-than-optimal financial shape, paying the divorce lawyer can be another bill or fee that they don’t want to have to make. To make this a little easier the lawyer will attempt to deduct some of the cost. Examples of deductible costs include the fees paid for tax planning, obtaining an income that is taxable, and securing interest in retirement plans that are qualified. Deductibility along with tax planning will allow you to take the most advantages.
Number Four: Bonds Transfers
Generally there is no tax applicable on public traded securities unless it happens to be a US savings bond. Bonds tend to have high interest, and these earnings actually have to be put down as income. You do have the choice to transfer the bonds at a later date or whenever they are cashed, but the transferee will be taxed.
Number Five: Capitalizing Lawyer Fees
Clients may be able to add their attorney’s fees to the capital basis of their property. This does not really add or deduct any value from the property, but does mean you get less when sold. There could be a prorated allocation of the costs by the IRS, or in some cases it will be split across multiple objects which are involved in the case.
Number Six: Payments That Are Deductible
There are many types of payments that are referred to as maintenance payments; however these are not all tax deductible as one might think. There are a set of terms and conditions that must apply to any payment before it can even be considered for this. The terms hold a number of rules that the payments must abide by, for example the payment cannot be nontaxable, it must stop at the death of the other half and the payment has to be made in cash. Child support or payments that are for property division are be considered maintenance.
I truly recommend Joe Davis because he routinely writes on family law issues and is an author for the Morgan Law Firm.
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