What You Need to Know About Taxes After a Divorce
Divorce is a difficult and emotional process and, in the aftermath, you will encounter more challenges. For instance, your tax situation will differ from when you were able to file jointly with your spouse. To overcome these obstacles, it would be wise to hire a tax law attorney to provide you with the sound legal advice you need to navigate these changes.
Understanding the Tax Changes You Will Face After Getting Divorced
Depending on the complexity of your divorce and whether it involved certain factors like child support, spousal support, or even a business that landed on the chopping block, your taxes might be a handful for you after your split. It is essential to understand how all of these different factors can potentially impact your taxes. Although you have likely filed for taxes on your own before, this is probably the first time you will be filing for taxes as a divorcé.
Here are some things you should know about filing for taxes after dissolving your marriage:
- Take a look at your divorce decree: Did you carefully review your divorce decree to see which of you will be able to claim the children as dependents? If your decree does not specify this, the custodial parent will be able to claim them. In the event that you and your co-parent have joint custody, the parent who has the most days with the children will have the benefit of being able to claim them as a dependent.
- Get started early: If you are entitled to claim your children as dependents, but you are afraid that your former spouse will try to claim them on their tax return, file as early as you can. If you already claim them, your ex-spouse will not be able to claim them without proving to the IRS that he or she is entitled to do so.
- Claim you are Head of Household: You will be able to get a higher deduction if you have children and are single on the last day of the year if you claim to be Head of Household in your taxes. Additionally, in order to qualify, you will need to be responsible for more than half of their support.
- Review the withholding on your tax form: If you have a job, change the withholding on your W-4. A good rule of thumb is to review your tax forms any time you endure major life changes.
- Alimony and child support: Recent tax reforms changed how the IRS handles alimony. For divorces filed after December 31, 2018, alimony will no longer be tax deductible. If you receive alimony, you will not have to report it as taxable income. If you pay child support, this has never been tax deductible and has never been considered income.
Speak to an Experienced Tax Attorney Today!
At Scarangi Law, our tax law attorneys are experienced in handling any of your tax law questions or concerns. We understand the difficulties you might be facing as you adjust to the changes produced by your divorce and are here to help get you through it.
Contact our law office today at (717) 775-7195 to ask about a free case review.