New Jersey Family Law Blog

How Shared Custody Can Complicate Your Tax Returns

January 1, 2022 | Kearns Rotolo Law

January is typically the month when we start to collect year-end tax documentation in preparation for the April tax season. While filing income taxes can be complicated for many of us, it can be especially confusing for divorced parents with children.

Shared custody arrangements can raise questions regarding which parent is eligible to claim dependents and, therefore, receive tax credits. For some guidelines on claiming dependents and tax credits when sharing custody of your children with your ex read, “How to Do Your Taxes if You Share Custody of Your Kids.”

Looking Ahead Can Help You Avoid Some Common Financial Mistakes When Divorcing

December 1, 2021 | Kearns Rotolo Law

When going through a divorce, couples can let emotions drive their decision-making process, especially when it comes to such issues as divvying up their assets. The more contentious the divorce, the more likely the scenario of a spouse fighting for assets simply to keep them out of the hands of their soon-to-be-ex.

Cutting through the emotions associated with divorce and looking ahead at the realities of their financial situation can help couples avoid long-term mistakes. To learn about some of the more common financial mistakes divorcing couples make read, “5 Money Mistakes to Avoid When Going Through a Divorce.”

Property Division: Determining What’s Yours, Mine & Ours

November 1, 2021 | Kearns Rotolo Law

When building a life together as husband and wife you will, no doubt, accumulate a lot of stuff. Normally, this isn’t a problem unless your marriage ends in divorce. At that point, you will be faced with the difficult, and sometimes contentious, task of dividing up your assets.

Some couples are lucky enough to reach settlement agreements on their own terms; others require the court to intercede. That is when property distribution becomes more complicated than simply deciding who wants a particular asset more. Understanding the legal definition of separate and community or martial property, as well as knowing which property ownership system your state observes, can help you better understand what to expect should you need to go to court. To learn more read, “How to Split Marital Assets During Divorce.”

You’re Divorced. Now What?

October 1, 2021 | Kearns Rotolo Law

For most couples, the divorce process starts the moment they realize their marriage is beyond repair, long before they get attorneys involved and start the legal process. It can be months, and in some cases years, between the time a couple decides to dissolve their marriage and the time the divorce is finalized by the court. So, it’s no wonder that once they do have their divorce decree in hand, they want nothing more than to sit back and heave a sigh of relief. But there’s still work to be done.

Once a divorce is finalized, there are loose ends to tie up, some of which are time sensitive. To make sure you don’t miss important deadlines or forget to update important documents, it’s a good idea to create a post-divorce to-do list. For help on what such a list should include, read “Post-Divorce Checklist: Exactly What You Must Do After Divorce.”

Divorce & Your Credit Score—Prepare for Some Changes

September 1, 2021 | Kearns Rotolo Law

There’s no question that divorce impacts many areas of your life: family dynamics, social relationships, even your credit score. In fact, 54% of women and 42% of men reported their divorce negatively impacted their credit scores.

Why is that? Divorce can change your financial habits and obligations. Joint debt accumulated during the marriage—mortgages, credit cards, car loans—is considered by creditors to be the obligation of both parties to which the credit was extended. In a divorce, the court may decide which party is responsible for which debt, but that doesn’t change the creditor’s expectations. When the responsible party misses a payment either by accident or out of spite, the lender to whom the payment is owed still considers both parties responsible. Closing all joint accounts is not necessarily the answer as that can lower your credit score as well.

There are ways you can minimize the impact your divorce may have on your credit rating, however. To learn how read, “Does getting a divorce affect your credit score?”

Understanding Child Support

August 2, 2021 | Kearns Rotolo Law

When parents are seeking a divorce, some of the biggest issues they will need to resolve involve their children, specifically custody arrangements and child support.

On the most basic level, child support is intended to cover the essential, daily needs of the children: food, clothing, and shelter. But support payments can also extend to cover additional expenses, including those related to education, healthcare, employment-related childcare, and extra-curricular activities. These additional expenses can often be a source of conflict between divorcing parties. If the parents cannot come to an agreement on how to divide these expenses, the court will intervene.

To prepare yourself to negotiate an equitable child support agreement or to better understand the court’s ruling, read “The Ultimate Guide to Child Support.”

Why Rushing Your Divorce Is Never A Good Idea

July 1, 2021 | Kearns Rotolo Law

For most couples, divorce isn’t a decision arrived at overnight. Usually, the decision to divorce comes after long periods of living with irreconcilable differences and numerous attempts to resolve conflicts. It is understandable then why, once the decision to divorce is finally reached, couples just want it to be over with so they can get on with their lives. Rushing through the divorce process, however, can be a bad idea.

No matter the reasons behind a couple’s decision, divorce can be a very emotional process. Those emotions can hamper a couple’s ability to make good, sound decisions. Agreeing to something for the sake of getting the divorce over with can negatively impact life post-divorce. To learn more about why rushing through a divorce is never a good idea, read “How Long Will My Divorce Take?”

Amending A Divorce Settlement Can Be Difficult

June 1, 2021 | Kearns Rotolo Law

When negotiating your divorce settlement, it is important to carefully review every detail. Once a settlement agreement is reviewed and signed by both parties, the divorce is considered finalized. What happens then if it is discovered that something has been left out of the agreement? What recourse, if any, do you have?

The answer depends, in part, on whether the oversight is discovered by both spouses who then agree on the distribution of the assets involved, or if only one spouse realizes that an oversight has been made and seeks to amend it. To learn more, read “Steps to Take When an Issue in a Divorce Settlement Is Overlooked.”

Retirement Plans & Divorce: Attention to Detail is Crucial

May 1, 2021 | Kearns Rotolo Law

The distribution of assets can be one of the most complicated and contentious aspects of any divorce. That applies to the division of retirement accounts, too. Failure to correctly identify the type of retirement plan involved can lead to tax complications down the line.

Distributions from IRAs and Qualified Retirement Accounts are subject to different tax treatments. Understanding the rules that apply to the division of assets from each type of account can help assure that any applicable tax burden is attributed to the correct party. To better understand these differences and their potential tax liabilities, read “How to Split IRAs and Other Retirement Plans During a Divorce.”

Stimulus Checks & Child Support: What You Need to Know

April 1, 2021 | Kearns Rotolo Law

The government-issued stimulus checks were intended to help those eligible address some of the financial challenges brought on by the pandemic, but for divorced parents who share custody of their children and pay or receive child support, these payments have proven a major source of confusion in some cases.

Criteria used to determine eligibility in the first two rounds of stimulus payments sometimes resulted in both parents receiving payments for the same child, or receiving a stimulus payment along with additional tax credits for that child. The eligibility criteria surrounding the third stimulus payment has changed yet again, but it still affects those dealing with child custody and support agreements. To learn how read, “Child support and the third stimulus check: Let us clear up the confusion.”