Divorce is bound to pull on your emotions and create difficulties that you may not quite be sure how to handle. One thing’s for sure, though; you don’t have to pay more spousal support than you legally need to. Unfortunately, many people fall victim to paying too much support for too long a period because the either have poor legal counsel or they don’t know their rights.
California state law is very clear on spousal support, within certain guidelines. In fact, the state uses a standard calculation to determine support payments. To help you assess your possible support payments, We provides an on-line Child & Spousal Support Calculator. This client resource is a powerful, proprietary tool to help you determine the money you might owe or be owed as a result of divorce.
Click Here to access the calculator.
Please be sure that you fill in all fields in each screen before moving on to the next. This provides the closest possible calculation. Here’s the process:
1. Enter Husband’s annual gross income
2. Select the Husband’s filing status
3. Enter Wife’s annual gross income
4. Select the Wife’s filing status
5. Your estimated spousal support result will be displayed on the screen, in both monthly and annual figures.
Here’s an example of what you might find. Let’s say, for sake of argument, the husband’s income is $100,000, the wife’s income is zero, and both choose “single” as their income tax filing status. In this scenario, the husband would likely pay $2,718 monthly or $32,618 annually in spousal support. If, however, both spouses were working and the wife earned $65,000 annually, then under similar circumstances the husband’s spousal support payment might be $395 monthly or $4,750 annually.
The spousal support calculator is a good estimated assessment of what you might pay or receive in alimony. However, this calculator is for estimation only. Although our testing has produced results consistent with the calculators that the courts use, and is based on use of the same mathematical formula, no guarantee is made regarding its accuracy nor will we accept any liability from your use of the program.
In addition, there are other circumstances that play into how much spousal support you must pay (or are allotted to receive), based on a list of circumstances. As such, while the formula used to determine support is the same in every California court, a skilled family law attorney will negotiate certain items with the other party to ensure a fair spousal support judgment is made. We are experts at this process and will fight to get you the best results possible within the legal system.