In Florida, the court can order the non-custodial parent to pay child support to the ex-spouse. The court may consider the following factors when calculating child support:
- Expenses
- Parent’s ability to pay
- Needs of the child
- Number of children to support
The court may also take into account the behavior of the spouses during the marriage, including incidents of adultery.
Additionally, the court may also order one spouse to pay alimony, also called spousal support. Factors taken into account when calculating alimony include:
- Standard of living during marriage
- Length of marriage
- Age and health of spouses
- Financial resources of both parties
- Earning capacity and education of both parties
- Contribution of each spouse to the marriage, including financial contributions
- Tax treatment of both parties
- Both parties’ parenting responsibilities
- All income sources
- Spouses’ behavior, including adultery
Remember that you’ll need to take both alimony and child support payments into consideration when filing taxes after divorce. You can deduct alimony payments that you make from your gross income, but you can’t deduct child support payments. While alimony payments you receive count as income, child support payments you receive do not.