Arlington Family Law Blog

What is a protective order?

A protective order is a court order signed by a judge or magistrate that protects a person's health or safety. In the context of family law, the order can be entered when an act of family abuse has occurred. 

When you prepare your tax returns, ask your tax preparer whether you can deduct the legal fees you paid during the tax year to obtain support or a divorce. In most cases, you cannot deduce legal fees. However, under the Internal Revenue Service rules (I.R.C. Section 212)

Married couples in Virginia generally recognize that they need to make ongoing efforts to nurture their relationships. Emotional inertia and exhaustion, however, can undermine people's desire to work on their marriages. Divorces sometimes result, and an inability to recover from arguments tops the list of reasons for marriages to end.

Recovery from a dispute or confrontation requires partners to repair their feelings and focus on fixing relationship problems. Disagreements naturally arise even in good relationships, but family therapists emphasize that emotional repair after fighting must occur for couples to maintain good feelings toward each other. When repair fails to happen, people feel ignored and grow distant from their partners.

For divorced entered after December 31, 2018, there has been a profound change in the tax law relating to spousal support and alimony.

For divorces entered before January 1, 2019, spousal support or alimony was tax deductible on the payor's federal tax return. The recipient of spousal support or alimony would have to claim his or her spousal support or alimony as taxable income on his or her federal tax return. This allowed the party who made more money to take a deduction at his or her higher tax bracket and the party receiving alimony to pay taxes at his or her lower tax bracket. Someone who paid $1,000 per month in alimony who had a marginal tax bracket of 25% would be able to deduct the $1,000 per month and save $250 per month in taxes. Conversely, someone who received $1,000 in alimony who had a marginal tax bracket of 25% would have to pay $250 per month in taxes.