What is Spousal Support?
If one spouse has less income than the other, spousal support may be appropriate. This is a monthly amount of money paid by one spouse to help support the other spouse. Whether there is an entitlement to spousal support, the amount, and duration of payments depends on many factors including:
· Length of your relationship
· Income earning potential of each
· Roles during the relationship
· Health of each person
· Economic impact of the separation on each of you
· Property division
· Age of each spouse
· If there are any children still at home
If you and your spouse have about the same income, your relationship lasted less than 5 years, you didn’t have any children and you are both healthy, there would be no spousal support owed by either of you.
If you are 55 years old, suffering from poor health, you were the primary caregiver of the children and never returned to the paid workforce, whereas your spouse earns $100,000 per year, you would have a right to spousal support.
These two examples are obvious examples of when spousal support is owed and when it not owed. The vast majority of cases lay somewhere in between the two examples described above. Our lawyers can advise you whether in your case there is an entitlement to spousal support.
If there is an entitlement, the next question is the amount of spousal support to be paid. Unfortunately, there is no chart to determine the amount of spousal support owed. It all depends on the circumstances of your case. A helpful indicator as to the likely range of spousal support is given by the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines SSAG. The SSAG are a series of complicated formulas which predict the likely outcome of an application to court for spousal support. The SSAG are not legally binding because they are not included in legislation. They are simply a tool used to predict what a judge might do.
Each of the lawyers in our office has a computer program that does the calculation for you as to the range of spousal support according to the SSAG. We can help give you a better idea of entitlement, amount and duration of spousal support at a consultation.
Ten important facts about Spousal Support:
1. Before determining the amount of spousal support to be paid, first determine the amount of child support.
2. Spousal support that is paid monthly is tax deductable for the person paying it and the recipient must pay taxes on it as if it was income.
3. A lump sum of spousal support can be paid instead of monthly payments.
4. Lump sum payments of spousal support are not tax deductable so this needs to be taken into consideration when determining the amount.
5. Generally spousal support is paid 1 year for every 2 years of relationship.
6. If you have been married for more than 20 years, the potential for spousal support will always exist.
7. If the recipient’s age plus the years of marriage exceed 65, then spousal support could be payable forever.
8. Common law partners can seek spousal support but only if the relationship lasted more than 3 years or you had a child together.
9. The recipient of spousal support has an obligation to use their best efforts to become economically self-sufficient in so far as it is practical to do so. If they do not, then it is possible for an income to be allocated to them and their spousal support be decreased.
10. The payor of spousal support cannot just quit his or her job or become voluntarily under-employed so as to avoid paying spousal support. You pay spousal support based on your realistic potential to earn income even if you choose to do otherwise.