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2013 Child Support Guidelines Preview Part 2: Which Comes First? The Alimony or The Child Support?

By William Levine posted Thu July 18,2013 11:46 AM

  

2013 Child Support Guidelines Preview Part 2: Which Comes First? The Alimony or The Child Support?

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

In an earlier blog entry, we wondered about how various judges might apply what are arguably competing aspects of the presumptive formulae for alimony and child support. Since 2009, the Child Support Guidelines (CSG) have presumptively absorbed the first $250,000.00 of combined family income, while the Massachusetts alimony “reform” statute (eff. 3/1/12), forbids the use of dollars for alimony analysis, when they have already been exposed to CSG treatment. Since neither specifies which calculation comes first, which is the chicken and which the egg?

This is no idle wondering. Given the opposite tax impacts of alimony (taxable/deductible) and child support (not taxable/not deductible), the economic differences in the two approaches can be substantive, even substantial. We noted earlier that judges addressing lawyers’ groups about their own practices in this regard seemed open minded to hearing both sides of the equation. Meanwhile, as Greater Boston and WesternMassachusetts divorce and family law mediators, we have been running the calculations both ways all along, not in an undereducated effort to mirror judicial thinking, but to help inform our clients of the differing possible economic outcomes, in seeking consensus on fair and tax-efficient family support arrangements.

The 2013 CSG resolves the question expressly, if not definitively. They state that neither approach is improper, and that under appropriate circumstances, judges may apply either approach. We applaud this approach as it maximizes flexibility, elevating inquiry and analysis over form, in the search for equity and efficiency.

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