A capital asset is any property owned by a taxpayer that is not bought or sold in the course of  business. This includes significant pieces of property such as homes, cars, investment properties, and investment accounts.  Therefore, a marital residence is a capital asset.    A capital gain (or loss) occurs when a capital asset is sold or exchanged.  A long-term […]

Maintenance (Alimony) is support one spouse pays to the other after divorce.  After a court has made a determination that maintenance is appropriate for one spouse, then the court must decide how much maintenance that spouse will receive and for how long the spouse will receive it.  In order to decide these issues, courts will look at […]

In Illinois, maintenance (alimony) is support one spouse pays to the other after divorce.   Generally, maintenance requires a two-part analysis by the court.  First, the court must decide whether maintenance is appropriate under the unique circumstances of the case.  If maintenance is appropriate, then the court determines how much maintenance the spouse receives per month and for how may months maintenance will be paid. This article pertains to the first part […]

A house that is marital property must be divided at divorce. Since literally cutting the house in half is not an option (although some guy in Germany did it), dividing a house at divorce must be done using other methods.   The simplest solution is putting the house on the market and splitting the proceeds of the sale. Since Illinois […]

In most retirement plans, such as a 401(k) or traditional IRA, taxes are paid when funds are distributed, i.e. “cashed out” of the plan.  Taxes would be paid at a rate according to the income level of the person cashing out at the time of the distribution.  Presumably, if an account is distributed during retirement, […]

A major component of any divorce is identifying the marital property that will later be divided.  Although this sounds simple, it often is not because people are financially motivated to hide assets.  If assets remain hidden they cannot be divided.  Hidden assets can be a major issue in high net worth divorces.  This is especially true if one spouse controlled the finances during the marriage while the […]

There are two types of property in a divorce: marital and non-marital. Marital property is property acquired during a marriage with funds earned during the marriage. Non-marital property is property owned before a marriage or received as a gift during a marriage.  Inheritances are non-marital property.  A home purchased during a marriage with income made […]