By The amount of money you are either paying for alimony or receiving is definitely not fixed at the same time. This is a matter that is always subject to fluctuations depending on the financial stability of the one who is paying allowance. Each person faces money-challenges throughout life. First, if you are the one who continues with the alimony to your ex and your income has been modified, you have the option to ask for a modification of the alimony agreement.
This article will provide an answer to the question of does alimony change if income changes.
What Makes Alimony Change If Income Changes?
You might be paying or receiving a particular amount as the alimony. You must note that this amount is not permanent and is subject to change. Your financial circumstances will change within various timelines while you’re paying or receiving alimony through your ex-spouse.
Moreover, depending on your and your ex-spouse’s financial circumstances, you have the choice of reducing the amount you pay in alimony. Further, if such a situation arises, you might also have the option to completely stop paying for alimony. On the other hand, there can also be instances, where the amount of alimony payment can increase.
Is Alimony Payment Permanent?
If you are wondering whether alimony payments are permanent or temporary, then the answer is no. It is possible for you to file a petition stating to change the amount of alimony, which the higher-income spouse usually pays.
Moreover, alimony does change if income changes. This means, the alimony amount you pay or receive is subjected to change when the financial situation has significantly changed. Similarly you can request for an amendment in your alimony in a variety of cases. These can include, increase in living expenses, increase in yours or your child’s medical bills, or change in income.
Does Alimony Change If Income Changes?: If You Are Paying Alimony
If you are the one who is paying alimony, you have the option of requesting to modify the amount of alimony you are paying if your income has changed (decreases, in most cases) or the income of your spouse has increased.
A sudden loss of job or change in income through no fault of your own are good factors for the court to reconsider your obligation to change the alimony agreement. For instance, you are employed in sales, and your industry has suffered severe losses due to the economy. Or, your employer might have gone bankrupt and terminated all its employees.
Similarly, if you see that your ex-spouse’s income has increased significantly. You might feel the obligation to longer pay high amounts of alimony on a regular basis. In such matters, the court might agree with your opinion.
Moreover, there are also other factors regarding which you can request for modification of your alimony agreement. The court might also approve your request for modification, if your income has not decreased. But, the expense of living has increased for you.
For instance, you might discover that you’re suffering from a chronic medical condition that will require frequent expensive treatments. Due to which, you might no longer be able to afford paying the similar amount of alimony.
On the other hand, if your income has increased or your spouse’s income has reduced, they might file for a modification request for an increase in alimony payments.
Does Alimony Change If Income Changes?: If Your Ex-Spouse is Paying Alimony
If you’re on the receiving side of getting the alimony payments. Meaning your ex-spouse is paying for alimony and their income has increased significantly. Then you are entitled to involve your family law attorney to request for a raise in alimony amount.
Similarly, if you see your spouse’s income has decreased and you can no longer afford your living expenses or provide for your child. In such cases, you can request for a modification within the alimony agreement and ask your ex-spouse to pay more.
What Does Change In Income Constitute?
Now you might wonder what a change in income really means. Receiving a slight increase in pay or bonus does not constitute enough for courts to consider change in income, especially for reconsidering alimony payments.
Generally, change in income will have to be substantially enough that can be deemed “unfair” according to your state’s guidelines for alimony payments. For instance, in Minnesota, the difference will have to be at least 20% or $75.
So, your ex-spouse’s income doesn’t have to double or increase by a huge amount. As long as a new court order has not been passed, which is based on the new income. The amount will stick to 20% or $75 higher or lower than the current order. Moreover, there is a good chance that the court shall approve this modification.
Further, even this amount is not set in stone. In some circumstances, the court might step in and decide on an unfair agreement based on specific factors that are unique to the case alone.
What If The Alimony Agreement Is Non-Modifiable?
When building out the first time agreement, both sides may come to an understanding that it is non-amendable. For that reason, it will prohibit in the future one spouse from doing the other one contrary to an agreement. Indeed it is, even after an alteration of income, like if the alimony recipient’s spouse suddenly doubled his income after promotion.
One is to realize that a court cannot meaningfully do anything that makes the modification of the alimony agreement possible without the participation of both spouses.
For the sake of being more expressive, this might be the Karon Waiver, also infamously termed as “the Karon waiver”. Another case is the Karon case where the Minnesota Supreme Court decided that the modifications were no longer allowable after two parties had submitted a letter of agreement with the intention of dropping the right to submit modification requests.
Repercussions of signing Karon Waiver are quite different for both parties because they are prohibited by law to make any amendments even if one party’s income increases dramatically. In addition to that, with a Karon waiver you are going to know the amount of money you are going to receive and also the length of time for which it is to be paid. If one of the parties in the contract becomes bankrupt or wins the lottery, the terms and conditions of the agreement will remain the same.
Reasons Alimony Change if Income Changes
You might be wondering why the amount of alimony changes if income changes for a spouse. Here we are mentioning some of the reasons for the change in alimony amount below.
Receiving spouse’s income increases
For any reason on the side of your ex-spouse, including gainful employment, better salary and salary increment, you may ask whether your alimony should be changed. It will be mostly determined by whether they see themselves better off financially and/or whether the higher income increased their standard of living. Moreover, if the amount of alimony still doesn’t suffice to meet all their expenditure and allow them to live up to the same standard of living they had before you got divorced. Similarly, you might not succeed in getting your alimony terminated or even reduced.
Paying spouse’s income increases
On the one hand, if your income has increased you may have to increase the amount of alimony. On the other hand, there is still a possibility that you will not have to pay more. If your ex-spouse goes and asks to have the financial order modified then he or she will be the one who will have to show a good reason for the change(that you earn more income). Moreover, they will challenge the judge to prove that depending on their condition they are also legally obliged to give them more financial support than those who have already been part of the divorce matter.
When Do You Need an Alimony Lawyer?
If you’ve been divorced or separated and now have concerns regarding the possibility of paying or receiving alimony, it might be helpful to talk to a lawyer who has had experience with alimony cases. Alimony also called spousal support is an obligation of one spouse to assist the other spouse through financial means after a divorce or judicial separation. Moreover, the alimony lawyer will explain to you the whole legal procedure and will describe your legal rights and obligations that concern the alimony.
Similarly, they can do this by being either your ally or your opponent and make sure that you either receive or pay a fair amount of alimony or not. Through all the emotionally exhausting aspects of this period, an experienced divorce lawyer will help you to overcome this process as stress-free as it is possible by offering guidance, support and legal assistance.
Final Thoughts
Now you have your answer to the question on why does alimony change if income changes. There are a variety of factors that might lead to the modification of the alimony agreement, and change in income is one of the primary reasons. So, it is advised you hire an experienced family law attorney to discuss the options available to make changes in your alimony agreement.
Read Also:
What's your reaction?
