Your case will likely encompass other considerations which you will need to discuss with a lawyer. In addition to child support, the non-custodial parent pays a pro rata share of uncovered medical costs and child care costs related to the employment of the custodial parent. Several recent cases have attempted to resolve this issue. In NYS the courts usually consider maintenance to be rehabilitative, i.e. that it is paid until the spouse completes steps to become self-supporting. In some instances spousal maintenance is paid for life.
Payments received are taxable income to the recipient and deductible to the payor.
Payments made on behalf of a spouse, but paid to a third party such as a mortgage payment, may be treated as maintenance in some circumstances. There is no statutory formula for determining maintenance. Courts consider all the facts and circumstances in your specific case. This is frequently the case when one of them has been married before. When entering into another relationship, the monied spouse usually has children from the first marriage and is thinking not only about the bad experience of the first divorce and property split, but also of the inheritance rights of the children from the first marriage.