Maintenance income calculation: How gifts and imputation of income can affect awards

Modern Family

By Michelle A. Lawless

Michelle A. Lawless is a partner at Schiller, DuCanto & Fleck LLP whose practice concentrates on valuations of closely held businesses, tax and estate planning matters, custodial and support arrangements for minor children as well as multistate jurisdictional disputes. She works with each client to find individualized solutions, whether that is through collaborative settlement or traditional litigation. She can be reached at mlawless@sdflaw.com.

Posted July 19, 2017 1:50 PM

A recent Appellate Court case shed light on two issues that divorce attorneys often encounter when dealing with maintenance or spousal support: what constitutes income for purposes of calculating maintenance, and the imputation of income to a support recipient who is not employed.The 2nd District case of In re the Marriage of Ruvola, 2017 IL App (2d) 160737, sheds some light on each of these issues in an interesting fact pattern where child support was not at issue because the parties had two grown children and the husband …

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