Legal Question in Family Law in California

Retired from the military as of 2000 Divorced 2004. Wife award 34% of my military retirement. (California). At the time, we did not know how to do the tax split on this. We agreed that would deduct my tax rate of 25% from her payments. This was done till now. There is now section on my tax return for military retirement payments to ex! Is it alimony?

Divorce decree state that she received gross payment of her share. Last month, I informed my ex that I will pay her gross as I believed it can be claimed as alimony. I also mailed her my end of year retirement statement. Last month I receive an email from her attorney that I owe her all the gross amounts since 2004 along with alimony. That I will be responsible for interest and legal fees. This is a shock for me. I work for the US govt and located in Africa. Do not have an attorney or the time to handle this correctly. Mail delivery here is snail slow. Please advise.


Asked on 3/20/12, 1:49 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
PATRICK MCCRARY PATRICK MCCRARY

If your order was prepared correctly your ex-wife would be paid directly and they would deduct your taxes from your share and her taxes from her share, so the 25% would not be an issue. At the current time you have a mess, depending upon the state of the orders from the court and their specific wording. Also, if the 25% is not mentioned in an order or judgment you should have some correspondence to verify that agreement. If you do not have the corrrespondence or an order, you may have problems. If you will scan and e-mail me a copy of the orders and any correspodence concerning the payments, I can give you better advice. Good Luck, Pat McCrary

Read more
Answered on 3/20/12, 2:13 pm


Related Questions & Answers

More Family Law, Divorce, Child Custody and Adoption questions and answers in California