Graham.Law Blog

Retirement Must Be Divided As Property In a Colorado Divorce Retirement is property, and if earned during the marriage, the pension is part of the marital estate to be divided upon dissolution of marriage per . It’s easy to conceptualize the division in the case of IRAs, 401(k)s and other defined contribution pensions which…

First Comes Property, Then Comes Alimony Which came first, the chicken or the egg? In the context of a Colorado divorce case, the question might be rephrased as “which comes first, property or alimony?” And the answer, per statute, is spousal maintenance (aka “alimony”). Under Colorado’s maintenance statute, one of…

In 2014, Colorado’s maintenance statute was modified to provide trial courts with maintenance guidelines that set forth both an amount and duration of alimony based upon the parties’ incomes and duration of the marriage. Colorado has long had child support guidelines which create a presumptive amount of child support a court must…

In what has become an annual tradition, Colorado’s 4th Judicial District (El Paso & Teller Counties) helps the community with a fantastic information event every May, in honor of Law Day. For the third consecutive year, dozens of attorneys & other professionals in the community volunteer their time to answer…

Does the GI Bill BAH count as income for the purposes of determining maintenance and child support in a Colorado family law case? The answer is yes – but only the GI Bill BAH, not the tuition assistance or the book/supply stipend. This is a rare “case of first impression”…

Lottery and Divorce – Impact on Alimony & Child Support Exhibit one in for lottery and divorce issues. The Huffington Post has an article this week entitled Woman Asks Ex Who Won Mega Millions Lottery: Can I Stop Paying Alimony? During the marriage, the wife had been the primary breadwinner, and was ordered to…

Stop Alimony After Retirement? Colorado law provides that a retirement after reaching the social security retirement age (which is currently 67 for those born in 1960 or later) creates a “rebuttable presumption” that the retirement is in good faith. (2)(b). While this presumption definitely favors the payor, that is not the same as stopping…

Effective January 1, 2019, the minimum wage in Colorado has increased from $10.20/hr to $11.10/hr. For those of us imputing income to a parent or spouse with minimal work experience, that means we now use a figure of $1924/mo for a full-time 40-hour week. Per the voter-approved Amendment 70, minimum wage will…

Since time immemorial, there has been an alimony tax deduction, making spousal maintenance taxable to the payee (add income on line 11 of the IRS Form 1040), and tax-deductible to the payor (deduct on line 31. As a result of the 2017 “Tax Cut and Jobs Act,” that is no…

If it’s almost January, it’s almost time for the military’s annual pay raises. On Friday, December 14, the Pentagon announced the new 2019 rates for BAH, the military’s Basic Allowance for Housing, and it’s a 2.5% increase. This increase is in addition to the previously-announced 2.6% annual pay raise for 2019 included in the…