Divorce litigation can drag on, which is why it is important to establish temporary support or pendente lite as quickly as possible. New York state law dictates a formula for temporary support to avoid argument between spouses, but the calculations can be difficult without the help of EzSupport-NY, NY matrimonial law software.
New York Temporary Support Formula
The payor is the spouse with the higher income and the payee is the other spouse. In order to calculate temporary support you have to do two calculations and take the lower of the two. Let’s consider a couple with salaries of $100,000 and $50,000 per year. Obviously the $100,000 spouse is the payor.
To perform the first calculation subtract 20% of the payee’s income from 30% of the payor’s income
- 20% of $50,000 is $10,000
- 30% of $100,000 is $30,000
- $30,000 – $10,000 = $20,000
So under this formula the temporary support would be $20,000 per year.
For the second calculation, subtract the payee’s income from 40% of the total income of both spouses:
- Total income is $50,000 + $100,000 = $150,000
- 40% of the total income of $150,000 is $60,000
- Subtract the payee’s income: $60,000 – $50,000 = $10,000
According to the second formula, the support would be $10,000 per year. The correct amount of temporary support is $10,000 per year, the lower of the two figures, which would probably be paid as $833.33 per month.
But Wait There’s More
If that’s all there was to the formula you wouldn’t need NY family law software, but there are other factors. For example:
- Income is not total income, but rather income minus deductions such as FICA (Social Security), alimony or child support from previous marriages, and New York City taxes.
- Each spouse’s income is limited to $524,000 per year.
- If the payor’s income falls below a certain range, then the support award will be lowered to ensure the payor can maintain a reasonable standard of living.
- Courts can overrule any of this for factors ranging from a spouse’s earning capacity (rather than actual earnings) to wasteful spending on either spouse’s part.
It is imperative that temporary support be calculated quickly and fairly to prevent the payee from feeling pressured into agreeing to an unfair settlement just to get enough alimony to live on. This is why family law attorneys should depend on an accurate and impartial tool like EzSupport-NY to determine support.
Find out other ways that EzSupport-NY helps you complete the NY Statement of Net Worth, calculate property settlements and determine spousal and child support in a divorce.
