The Alimony Calculator is not designed to tell you how much alimony is fair.
There are simply too many variables that have not been quantified under the
law, and no guidelines have been developed like they have been for child
support. Until the law defines a formula or tables, no program can tell you how
much alimony is fair.
What does it do?
But the Alimony Calculator can dramatically help you analyze an alimony case
by calculating how much net disposable income each party will have each
month.
What information does it need?
You enter the parties' incomes, number of exemptions, and filing status, and
then you enter the number of children with each parent and the other
information the program needs to calculate child support. You can also enter
other mandatory payments of a party, such as Chapter 13 bankruptcy
payments.
You can then enter a proposed amount of alimony, and the Alimony Calculator
then calculates each party's income and FICA/Medicare taxes, child support
and after-tax cost/benefit of the alimony, and then presents you with the
amount of net disposable monthly income each party will have.
Only then can you compare disposable incomes and decide how much
alimony is fair in your particular case.
So powerful, but so easy to use...
The disposable income is derived from:
Gross Monthly Income
less
Federal Income Taxes
South Carolina Income Taxes
FICA/Medicare/Self-Employment Taxes
Nondiscretionary Payroll Deductions
Other Mandatory Obligations
Prior Support Obligations
plus/less After-Tax Alimony Paid/Received
plus/less Child Support Paid/Received
less Other Child Support Items Paid
RESULT: Net Disposable Income
All of this operates on the idea that you enter an amount of alimony and the
Alimony Calculator calculates the net disposable income.
It can even tell you how much alimony you need
to reach your budget.
The Alimony Calculator will also allow you to enter the target net disposable
income that you are trying to reach, and the Alimony Calculator will do the
reverse calculation and tell you how much alimony it takes to reach that goal.
It is called Goal Seek.
The bottomline is this:
If you don't know how much each party will have to live on each month, how can you tell how much alimony is fair?
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Traxler Legal Software Solutions, LLC
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Alimony Calculator - How Does It Work?
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