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Sources

You can read the law on alimony in the Wyoming State Statutes Section 20-2-114 and Section 20-2-116. To learn more about continued alimony payments under a separation agreement even after the recipient spouse remarried, see Swetich v. Smith, 802 P.2d 869 (1990). To read a case dealing with material and substantial changes of circumstances, see Maher v. Maher 90 P.3d 739 (2004). For more on alimony and taxes, see Internal Revenue Service Publication 504, page 12.

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Taxes

Wyoming follows the IRS structure for taxing alimony. If you are paying alimony, your payments are tax deductible. If you are receiving alimony, the IRS taxes what you receive as income.

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Terminating Payments

Alimony payments terminate automatically when the recipient spouse dies. Where the recipient spouse remarries, the paying spouse can ask the court to terminate payments. There is an exception to this, however. Spouses are free to agree to alimony payments on their own, without the court’s involvement, in a separation agreement. These types of agreements generally settle the spouse’s property rights and can include other arrangements dealing with child custody, child support, and alimony. If a spouse concedes in a separation agreement to pay alimony to the other spouse for 10 years, for example, but the recipient spouse remarries after five years, then the paying spouse could be stuck with making payments for the whole 10 years.

Consequently, if you decide to use a separation agreement to determine the length and amount of alimony payments you must make, be sure to include language about what happens if your spouse remarries.

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Changing Payments

The court can modify alimony payments any time a spouse has experienced a material and substantial change of circumstances and a spouse has asked the court to make a modification. This is true even if the divorce has been final for years. A spouse has no right to stop or change payments without the court’s permission, however, unless the spouse receiving alimony (the recipient spouse) has died.

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The court can order alimony payments as part of the distribution of property and may use a spouse’s separate property, which can include real estate, rents, profits, or other income, to satisfy the necessary amount. For instance, if your spouse requests alimony and you have separate property – say you owned a condominium before marriage that you kept as a rental property during marriage – the court could order you to pay alimony to your spouse by assigning rents or profits from that condo to your spouse.

The court can order periodic alimony payments for life or for as long as necessary. Alimony could also be a lump sum payment made only once.

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How the Court Calculates Alimony

There is no equation or calculator that you can use to find out how much alimony you are due or might have to pay. Payments are based on the requesting spouse’s needs and the paying spouse’s ability to pay. Otherwise, the court has wide discretion in awarding alimony, as long as it is reasonable and fair.

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In Wyoming, you can request alimony as soon as the divorce process begins; you can receive temporary alimony until you get your final order from the court. You can even ask for alimony to help you cover the expense of the divorce, regardless of who asked for the divorce.

Once the court awards alimony, either spouse can challenge the amount or duration of the award at any time during or after the divorce. For example, if you request and get alimony to help you defend the divorce, your spouse can immediately ask the court to reconsider the order for financial reasons. Your spouse can’t, however, ask the court to deny your alimony because you caused the marriage to fail. The court does not include either spouse’s fault when deciding whether to award alimony, how much should be awarded, or for how long.

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4.      What do we need to do to get alimony?

Alimony (also called spousal support or maintenance) is a payment from one spouse to the other during or after divorce. It acts like a substitute for the financial support the spouses received from each other during marriage--and if one spouse provided more of the support during the marriage, the same will be true after divorce.

Alimony is not gender-based; either spouse may request alimony. A court will award it only to the one who is financially disadvantaged, however. In other words, you can’t get alimony out of your spouse if you also are in a better position to support yourself because you have more income, property, or both.

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Sources

You can read the law on child support in the Wyoming State Statutes, Sections 20-2-301 through 315. You can find an online calculator for child support guidelines in Wyoming’s Forms and Procedures packet. You can read about enforcement of child support orders on Wyoming’s Department of Family Services website.

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When asked to reconsider a child support payment before an order is in place, a court will evaluate the fairness of a guidelines-result based on factors including the child’s age, cost of day care, transportation costs, and any special health or educational needs. A court also looks at the parents’ responsibilities to other children, the value of services contributed by either parent, and the parents’ ability to provide health insurance through employment benefits. Additionally, a court considers the parents’ relationship to each other, the expense of pregnancy, the amount of time the child spends with each parent, any other necessary expense for the child, and whether a parent is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed.

Once a court makes a child support order, it can be modified at any time if a parent experiences a substantial change in circumstances. A change is substantial if there would be a 20% change in the amount of child support. For example, the paying parent loses a job or the receiving parent wins the lottery.

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Blurring the Guidelines: Adjusting or Modifying Payments

A court will presume that the child support payment provided by the guidelines is the one that should be ordered. Parents, however, can agree to pay more than what the guidelines propose. They can’t agree to pay less. Also, a court could either reduce or increase the amount of child support if the guidelines render an amount that is unjust or inappropriate for one or both parents to pay.

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It becomes slightly trickier in cases where each parent keeps the child overnight for more than 40% of the year and contributes substantially to the cost of raising a child, or where each parent has physical custody of at least one of the children. In those situations, the amount of time a child spends with a parent (say, 45% with one parent versus 55% with the other) or the number of children per parent (2 kids stay with one parent while 1 stays with the other) matters and payments will be shifted to give more to the parent with greater responsibility.

In the event the parents’ combined income is less than $833, then the non-custodial parent (the one with less than 50% physical custody), must pay 25% of net income, with one exception. Payments must be at least $50 a month. So if this parent makes less than $200 a month, $50 would be due even though it is more than 25% of net income.

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According to the guidelines, for two kids, you must pay between 20% to 36.8% of your net income, plus an additional percentage of any income above a certain baseline amount. The baseline for our example net income of $2,500) is $2,083. The percentage of child support due on $2,083 is 35%. For every dollar above $2,083 – in our example, $417 – 31.9% of this amount must go to child support.

As calculated, it looks like this:

$2,083 x 35%=$729

$417 x 31.9%=$133

$729 + $133 = $862.

$862 is the total amount of child support due every month. Does that mean you must pay $862 per month or that the other parent has to pay you $862 per month? No, on both accounts.

You will have to provide a pro-rated share of $862 based on your individual income. Recall that your income in this example is $1,500 a month while the other parent has $1,000. Your income ($1,500) makes up 60% of $2,500. So you would be responsible for 60% of $862, which is $517. The other parent is responsible for 40% of $862, which is $345. Whether you are the one making payments or accepting them depends on your specific custody arrangement.

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The Guidelines

Once you know the income for both parents, you can apply it to the state’s guidelines to find the specific amount due. The guidelines are a formula used to determine support payments. Although the following gives an explanation on how to use the guidelines, you will have to look at the guidelines yourself to see how much your support payments will be. The link is included below.

First, count your kids. Let’s say you have two with the same parent. Then, take your net income. For example, say your net income is $1,500 a month. Add your net income to the other parent’s net income – we’ll use $1,000 for this parent’s income – so the total amount of net income is $2,500 ($1,500 + $1,000). Once you have these numbers (how many kids and how much income), look to the guidelines.

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Income

You must know the net income of both parents before you can calculate child support. Net income is the amount you take home in your paycheck after taxes and other deductions like social security and health insurance costs have been taken out. If you think you don’t have any income because you don’t earn a paycheck, think again. In Wyoming, income for child support also includes unemployment benefits, most worker’s compensation payments, and retirement benefits, among other things. Also, if you are voluntarily unemployed or underemployed, then a court could derive a potential income based on what you could be making.

Apart from the financial resources above, there are some items that fall outside of the scope of income. Besides personal income taxes, social security, and health insurance premiums, you can also exclude other court-ordered support (like alimony) to arrive at your net income. Also, any means-tested resources, like Pell grants, food stamps, and the POWER program are not included when calculating your net income.

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The Purpose of Child Support

Child support helps cover the cost of raising a child. It continues until the child is 18-years-old, and sometimes longer if the child is still in high school or has a mental or physical disability. Generally, it doesn’t matter if the money is used for school lunches or violin lessons.

The amount of support you have to pay or will receive depends on the number of children you have and the combined income of both parents. Based on these two factors, the state has developed guidelines to determine a fair and reasonable amount of child support. A court must approve the amount, however, and may occasionally deviate from the guidelines if the amount would be unjust or inappropriate.

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3.         What do we need to do to get child support?

Understanding Child Support in Wyoming

If you have a child and are on the brink of divorce, separation, or some other parenting action (like paternity), you likely have concerns about child support payments. Before worrying too much about how much child support will cost, or how much you might get, you should know that the law in Wyoming requires both parents support the child. What this means in actual dollars depends on custody and the income of the parents.

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Additionally, if you are a service member with visitation rights, under certain circumstances a judge may allow that a family member exercises those rights. If a service member with visitation rights receives temporary duty, deployment, or mobilization orders, and the service member has to move a substantial distance from his/her residence (or the orders affect in another way the service member’s visitation rights) then, the service member can ask a judge that a family member with a close and substantial relationship with the child makes use of those visitation rights while the service member is away. This may be possible if the judge believes it is in the child’s best interests.*4

In certain circumstances, a judge may expedite a custody or visitation case involving a service member, or allow him/her to present evidence or testimony by electronic means. A service member that has received temporary duty, deployment, or mobilization orders can ask the judge to expedite a pending custody or visitation hearing when his/her military duties have a significant effect in his/her ability to attend the meeting in person.*5 In addition, if the service member gives advance notice, s/he may be able to ask the judge if s/he can present testimony and evidence by phone, video conferencing, or the internet in pending custody or visitation matters.*6 

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     - Any order establishing the terms of custody or visitation when the service member is away may only be temporarily modified to  provide for the child’s best interests.*

     - Any order modifying an existing custody or visitation order that is necessary because of the service member’s temporary duty, deployment, or mobilization must specify that the military service is the basis for the order and that the order is temporary.*1

     - A judge must consider whether these temporary custody or visitation orders should terminate automatically.*2

     - After a service member returns, the temporary duty, mobilization, or deployment of a service member and the temporary disruption of the child’s schedule must be neutral factors in determining a material change in circumstances, and will not (by themselves) constitute a material change in circumstances permitting a permanent modification of custody or visitation rights.*3 

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What is the effect of military duty/deployment in custody/visitation?

Temporary military duty may affect custody modification in certain circumstances. If a service member with custody or visitation of a child, receives temporary duty, deployment, or mobilization orders, and the service member has to move a substantial distance from his/her residence (or have a temporary but significant effect in the service member’s visitation or custody responsibilities) then: