family-law
Determining gross income to calculate alimony
<p>Wife and husband have a 16 year marriage in Massachusetts. Wife owns business which has been support for household. Husband has refused to work. Husband wants alimony calculated on wife's gross salary plus car paid for by business plus health insurance premiums. The car and health insurance are paid 100% by business. Should health insurance premiums be added to wife's salary to compute her alimony payment? FYI: She provides health insurance for her children and husband. I cannot find case law on this issue.</p>

<p>Case law generally comes about from appellate court and most divorces are not appealed, so it is hard or impossible to find good case law on a lot of divorce topics.</p>

<p>Generally, if one spouse owns a business, the other is entitled to part of it in a divorce if the business came about during the marriage.</p>

<p>I have never seen a judge divide the business assets up piece by piece. No one, but the judge can say how he would see fit to divide the assets, but likely he would look at the wife's income and look at the stock in the business rather than each piece of it. Most of the time, if interest in a business is contested in a divorce it is just stock. </p>

<p>Alimony will come directly from the salary and most local courts have a formula it goes in. After that the judge would likely just decide if the husband is entitled to part of the wife's stock. </p>

<p>I am not interested in the division of the business. For temporary alimony, the judge took the wife's salary + the cost the company was paying for her car + the cost of the health insurance premiums and then calculated alimony. I can understand the car being added but not the health insurance as it is a benefit for the entire family. </p>
