When calculating alimony, should the former wife’s standard of living be based upon income that the former husband began earning after the marriage has ended or upon the income of the former husband earned during the marriage?

The purpose of alimony is well settled in Florida, to provide the needs and necessities of life to a former spouse as they were established by the marriage of the parties.  It follows that in fixing the amount of support payments, the standard of living to be used is that last shared by the spouses during the marriage. 

When determining income for support, whether it is child support of alimony or whatever, the Court’s look to all sources of income. You have the normal sources of income which are easily identifiable, such as W-2 type salary, hourly rates etc. Overtime also gets included in income especially if it is a consistent reoccurring overtime that a person gets every week, or month, what have you. Things get a little trickier when the income originates from disability sources or from family members. There’s actually of law out there that says that if you get a consistent payment from a family member, that can possibly be included as income for Court purposes. This Blog is specifically about what is called “in-kind” income. Basically, if you get a car free and clear from your company that you do not have to pay for, the Court most likely will consider that as an income source and put a value on that.