When parents who have minor children decide to end their marriage through divorce, they will need to address multiple issues related to child custody. As parents work to negotiate a parenting plan, they will decide how parenting time (formerly known as visitation) will be divided. While this will entail creating a schedule that states when children will live in each parent’s home or spend time in the care of a parent, parents will also want to make sure other issues related to parenting time are addressed properly.

Additional Parenting Time Concerns

In addition to providing a complete understanding of when children will stay with each parent, a parenting plan can also address rules and issues that affect parenting time, including:

• Communication - Both parents will want to maintain communication with their children, and one parent may want to check in on them while they are with the other parent. However, a parent may be concerned that too much communication with the other parent would interfere with their parenting time, or they may not necessarily want to give the other parent a window into their home. Parents can set rules for the appropriate times for calls between parents and children and the methods of communication they may use (such as phone calls, video calls, text messages, or email).

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Even if you and your spouse own significant assets, you may experience financial difficulties after your divorce. This can occur because of large costs during the divorce process, due to wasting or dissipation of assets by one spouse, or because you have trouble covering your ongoing expenses on a single income. The situation can become even worse if the IRS informs you that you owe money based on tax returns that were filed while you were married. Fortunately, you may have options for addressing this issue and ensuring that you will not be penalized for your spouse’s actions.

Understanding Post-Divorce Tax Debts and Innocent Spouse Relief

Both you and your ex-spouse are responsible for taxes on any joint tax returns you filed while you were married. This means that if the IRS decides to audit you based on any of these tax returns and it determines that taxes are owed, it can take action to collect the amount owed from both you and your spouse. Even if your divorce decree states that your spouse will be solely responsible for these tax debts, the IRS can disregard the court’s orders in these matters and collect money from both of you.

However, if errors on your tax returns were the sole fault of your ex, you may be able to avoid liability through innocent spouse relief. To qualify for relief, you will need to show that any underpayment of taxes occurred because of errors made by your ex-spouse on a joint tax return. At the time you signed the tax return, you must not have known or have had any reason to know about these errors. If the IRS determines that the tax debts are the fault of your ex-spouse and that it would be unfair to hold you responsible for these errors, you will not be required to pay these debts.

Every year, we publish dozens of blogs about a wide variety of topics related to divorce and family law. Our goal is to provide people with helpful information about issues that they may need to address when getting divorced, settling disputes over marital property or child custody, or handling other matters in family court. Our most popular blogs that people have read over the past year have covered many areas of the law and other issues that affect families, and we encourage you to read these articles and share them with those who may find them helpful:

1. When You Can Extend Child Support Beyond Age 18 - We look at when divorced parents may be required to contribute to their children’s college expenses or provide other forms of financial support.

2. Remarriage Can Affect Child Support Payments - While child support payments are typically based on parents’ incomes, in some cases, a parent’s marriage to a new spouse may affect the amount they will be required to pay.

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If you are like most people living in the United States in the 21st century, you use social media on a daily basis. Apps and websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok allow you to connect with friends and family, follow news stories, and communicate with others who share your interests. However, this level of connection may also have its drawbacks, especially if you are going through a divorce. As you go through the process of ending your marriage, you should take steps to protect your privacy and avoid any issues that could affect your divorce case.

Social Media and Privacy Concerns

During the divorce process, making sure your personal information is private is likely to be a major concern. If you and your spouse have shared a computer or other electronic devices, you may have had access to each other’s social media accounts. To ensure that your spouse cannot log into your account to view your personal information or make posts in your name, you will want to change your passwords, and you may also want to update your account settings to make sure you can only log in from certain devices.

You should also be aware of privacy settings on the posts you make. While you may be able to restrict access to certain posts so they can only be viewed by your close friends or family members, you should be prepared for the possibility that your spouse could still view this information. For example, a mutual friend may decide to take a screenshot of a message or photo you posted and send it to your spouse. To make sure your privacy is protected, you may want to avoid posting or sharing any information that you would not want your spouse to see.

For some couples, the idea of planning for divorce seems downright unnecessary. Not everyone sees the end of their marriage coming, even when it has been unraveling for some time. It is easy to remain in denial or to be so swept up in work, friends, and other activities that you do not realize the marriage is over until the warning signs are unmistakable. Marriages can end suddenly, and when they do, couples are often left to race around and pick up the pieces, with little to no preparation at all. 

How to Start Preparing for an Illinois Divorce

If you were not expecting your relationship to end so abruptly, you may be left with little choice but to face the music and begin chipping away at the filing process. Even the most peaceful splits entail a great deal of work from both parties. From arranging parenting plans and discussing possible spousal maintenance to dividing assets and planning for relocation, your hands will likely be full as you are thrust into the separation experience.

If you, like many spouses, feel blindsided by your suddenly imminent divorce, you can make the filing process as efficient as possible by making the following preparations: