The U.S. Government announced today that the income tax deadline of April 15, 2020 has been moved to July 15, 2020. Consequently all individuals and businesses have three extra months to file their income taxes. For those who would owe money to the government, the extra time to file means they get to hold onto […]

At divorce, marital property is distributed equitably. Although Illinois is not a community property state where each spouse receives 50% of the marital property, each spouse will usually receive a large percentage of the marital estate under an equitable distribution model. Any income earned during a marriage is marital property. This includes income earned while […]

The fundamental goal of business valuation is to determine the fair market value of the business. Although this sounds simple it doesn’t provide much help on how to determine the value. It is a mistake to believe that businesses have a single value and valuation will arrive at one indisputable value.  Valuation is not an exact science.  There are many methods used to arrive at […]

A business formed during a marriage is usually marital property. In Illinois, when a couple goes through a divorce, all marital assets, including businesses, need to be divided through equitable distribution. Often in divorce, a business is divided by one spouse “buying out” the other spouse.  But before one spouse “buys out” the other spouse, the business needs […]

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 is support one spouse pays to the other spouse after divorce.  Generally, courts are mandated to apply maintenance guidelines.   These guidelines follow a formula to determine the amount of maintenance and is intended to minimize litigation and provide uniformity of maintenance awards across the State of Illinois. The formula uses the income of the parties to determine the amount of maintenance.   One big […]

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 […]

On any Maintenance (Alimony) payment ordered after January 1, 2019, the spouse receiving the maintenance no longer has to pay taxes on it and the spouse paying maintenance can no longer “write off” the maintenance payments. This change is a result of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA) passed by Congress in November, 2017 and signed into law on December 22, 2017.  With the TCJA, individual and business tax rates […]

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 […]