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Monthly Archives: July 2014

Increased opportunity to change the Child Support Amount

Increased opportunity to change the Child Support Amount
Recently, on March 12, 2013, the Supreme Judicial Court recognized that a contradiction exists between Massachusetts statutory law and the Child Support Guidelines; both are supposed to be used together in determining whether child support can be modified and if so, how much. The calculation for determining how much child support should be paid has…
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Children of Divorced Parents: Tax Exemptions

Children of Divorced Parents: Tax Exemptions
The Supreme Judicial Court released a slip opinion, Phalla IV vs. Samath HANG., No. 11-P-2181. (May 14, 2013) (Phalla), resolving ambiguities created by recent amendments to the Internal Revenue Service Code, and providing an interesting abstract of a Massachusetts State judge's authority to allocate Federal dependency exemptions in divorce proceedings. State judges were historically deemed…
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Modifications of Child-Related Issues

Modifications of Child-Related Issues
It is important to remember that while the division of assets and debt are final upon divorce, this is not the case for issues relating to the children. In Massachusetts, child-related issues such as custody, parenting time and child support remain open to modification by the Court upon a material and substantial change in circumstance.…
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Child Support in High Income Families

Child Support in High Income Families
In Massachusetts, the Child Support Guidelines are calculated up to a maximum combined annual income of $250,000.00.1 In cases where the combined available gross income of the parties exceeds $250,000.00 per year, the guidelines should be applied on the first $250,000.00 in the same proportion as the recipient's and payor's actual income (as provided on…
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