What to Do for Filing for Divorce and How to Handle the Tax

Divorce is never easy, it carries with it stress of many kinds – financial, mental and most of all emotional stress. When it's inevitable, you can look at a few things that will help make the process easier:  
 

Step 1: Filing a no-fault divorce petition to lower the over-all trauma related to the process of divorce. The process becomes a lot simpler when there is no blame to be placed.   

Step 2:  Try your best to agree without any legal involvement on how to divide your assets and debts. Keep in mind your income differences when dividing the assets and debts – when there are children involved, there needs to be a custodial system set.  

Step 3: Make sure you document everything – it is preferred if you use a mediator to do it in order to avoid any conflict. The lesser the dispute, the easier the process will become for you and your family.   

The first and foremost thing that you would need to focus on would be to hire a good attorney – this will come in play if you and your spouse do not see eye to eye, and are unable to file for a no-fault divorce petition. A good attorney would be able to help you get through the process of divorce with as minimum as possible stops along the way. An excellent attorney will be able to hold your case very efficiently in court. You will need it, if there is a custody case that you need to fight as well.

Before you start a trial, your first concern should be to attain a clear picture of how well you and your spouse are financially. It is an important aspect to make sure that your assets and debts are divided equally amongst the two of you. In order to receive your fair share during the process and negotiations in a divorce settlement, you must be well aware of everything that you two owned and owed together.

In order to find out the exact financial position for you and your spouse, you will need to follow the two step process:

When we talk about marital assets, we are not only discussing obvious ones such as the marital home, the car, the financial accounts, etc. Everyone knows that each of these should be divided amongst the two of you equally, however in case of families where children are involved the marital house often goes to the partner that has the permanent custody of the kids. Aside from these evident assets, things like pension plans, artworks, house décor, and other things that were brought into the marriage must also be equally divided.

When a couple files for divorce, the way assets are split up, likely the debts must also be divided equally, regardless of whose names the debts are in. Usually the marital debts are split by the criteria based on who is more financially able pay those debts off. For a court to help you decide this, you would have to provide copies of the following documents: proof of income, a post-divorce budget, evaluation of joint financial accounts, etc. It would be helpful if the couple provides a complete elaborate credit report to their respective attorneys. 

When you file for a divorce first, it comes with a price, most of all, the fact that petitioning for a divorce will require you to put forwards your demands and desires in context of “splitting up”. Once your spouse is served with the divorce petition, you will be exposing your hand to them - they will be able to see the things you have put forward, and the things you want from this divorce. This will give them sufficient time to formulate a counterattack to your demands. This puts you at a disadvantage if your divorce petition is not a “no-fault” petition.  

In some places in the world, individuals that file for the divorce initially are requested to pay a filing fees. This would mean that they would be paying more to their attorney as compared to their spouse, since they would have to go through a process of first having their information and proof evaluated by their respective attorney. When you file for divorce first, you will first have to consider whether or not you can bear the extra added financial burden of filing a divorce. People filing for a no-fault petition could benefit since the partner that is more financially stable could file it in place of the other.  

It is very important to understand that filing for a petition first should not be considered a competition between you and your spouse. Because once you file the petition, you solidify your decision making it almost impossible to reverse. One should not file divorce unless they are absolutely 100 percent sure that they are ready to separate their ways from their partners. However if a couple hasn’t thought it through, and are still in between discussions and efforts to make it work then hastily petitioning for a divorce might turn out to be a huge mistake for you and your family! 

As discussed before, when you file for divorce first, it is evitable that you let your spouse know the basis that you are using for filing the petition for separation in the first hand. This puts you at a disadvantage because you are unaware of the counterattack tactics that your spouse may use. If the divorce is not mutual, you might have to face accusations that you might not even anticipate. There could be a chance that the antics that your spouse uses might affect your reputation, and your emotional state. In order to avoid this, it is often advisable to file for divorce on mutual grounds, arising conflict as little as possible.  

It may be complicated but the concept can be very helpful in the long run. For example, if you were already divorced by the end of tax year, 31st of December, you will be filing separately from your former spouse. For example, if you have the primary custody of your children, you might be qualified for a favorable head of household tax, and otherwise you will be a single taxpayer.

In some areas, there are laws that talk about how if alimony payments are concentrated in the first year or two year after divorce, the money is considered to be non-deductible property settlement. Furthermore, if the alimony payment periods ends within six months of a child turning 18, most agencies will consider it to be disguised child support, and not alimony payment. 

Divorce can be a very unpleasant and unsettling process for two individuals. This scenario intensifies for couples that are facing a huge conflict in the courtrooms, and are unable to come to a common agreement. It is very important that recently divorced individuals during the filing process have the emotional support they need to overcome the grief, anger, guilt and stress of the overall divorce process.  

It can be helpful if they speak to counselors that will be able to sort for them their feelings and help them cope with these feelings in a healthy way. It can often become difficult but in a divorce process, both individuals need to remind themselves why they got separated in the first place and why it is good for them – this helps them move forward from the pain that they are experiencing due to separation.  

People around these couples need to understand and support them, talk to them, and make sure they communicate and avoid any kind of self-destructive behavior pattern in order to cope with these hard times!  

The overall process of divorce can be very taxing emotionally, and can cause many issues over time for individuals and the people affiliated to them. It is important for people that decide to pave separate ways to make the process as simple as possible by trying to come to similar conclusions, and agreeing on terms and conditions of the divorce.  

The process becomes easier when you know where you both stand financially, and are able to settle assets mutually, along with making sure you have the aftermath of the divorce process straightened out.  

While legal formalities are a huge part of the process and must be approached with extreme caution, it must not be forgotten that while legal procedures are important, the mental and emotional state of recently divorced individuals must also be kept in mind. They will need all the emotional support they can get to walk through the process, with full strength!