Lexington SC Family Law Blog

Two United States citizens were married and gave birth to a little girl, who is now 14 months old. She was born in the United States, but eventually moved out of the country with her parents. However, the parents are currently in the process of divorcing. Now, the two will have to settle a series of complex child custody matters.

This case is complicated by the fact that both parents were living outside of the United States when they separated. They were living in Dubai, which is part of the United Arab Emirates. To make matters even more convoluted, the father has taken their daughter from her mother's custody, and is not complying with an American court's order to return the girl to the United States.

Previously, we discussed tax-related issues that should be addressed by South Carolina residents. In this second part, we will discuss two issues that revolve around the division of marital property and children.

When people are married, generally speaking their finances are usually commingled at least in some manner. This is especially true when children are involved. This means that it is not possible to simply say goodbye to a marriage. Financial matters that have been intertwined must be unwound, while others will continue on into the future, especially if children are involved. The following are a couple of examples of how tax law plays a role in divorce negotiations

• Division of property. There are many complex issues that revolve around the division of property. One issue related to taxes is that, generally speaking, property acquired in a divorce is considered a "gift" and is not taxable. The property will carry over its tax basis from prior to the divorce. This means that whenever the property is sold, the original tax basis will be used to determine gain or loss for tax purposes, which can place a significant burden on the one who will be responsible for the tax.

Though the tax season is now behind us, it is never too late to focus on tax considerations and planning especially if you are in the midst of a divorce or are newly divorced in South Carolina.

In this two-part post we will discuss several tax issues that should be addressed by divorcing couples in South Carolina.

• Filing status. When filing a tax return, South Carolina residents must determine their filing status as married or unmarried. The law for tax purposes is that you are married unless you have legally divorced by the end of the year. This may be something to consider, especially if it appears that a divorce will be finalized during the end of the year. This is because in some cases it may actually make financial sense to file jointly as a married couple for one last time, or to speed up the process and ensure that the divorce is finalized before year end.

In our previous post, we discussed the ongoing child custody case of a Cherokee Indian toddler. The girl was removed from the home of her adoptive parents and handed over to her biological father under a federal law protecting Native American families.

The Indian Child Welfare Act gives Native American tribes the right to intervene in adoption and child welfare cases in order to prevent parents of American Indian children from having their parental rights terminated.

The original justification for this law was to prevent the removal of Native American children to non-Native American homes and prevent the declining number of members in Indian Tribes. Before the law was adopted in 1978, 99 percent of all Native American children were being adopted by non-Indian homes.

The parents who adopted a Native American girl more than two years ago are hoping that the South Carolina Supreme Court will decide to return the daughter they raised as their own to their custody.

The couple began the adoption process even before the baby was born back in 2009. Here, the baby had been placed for adoption by her birth mother because she was unable to support the girl, and did not expect the father to support the child.

The open adoption took place in Oklahoma, and the adoptive parents brought their daughter home to South Carolina when she was still only a few days old.

This will likely not be the first time Lexington readers have been advised to be careful when it comes to using social media if they are going through a divorce, but it is a warning that bears repeating.

What you say about your ex-spouse or your divorce process on Twitter, Facebook or another social media site could affect your divorce settlement negotiations and leave you worse off than you were before you decided to blow off some steam. Of course, you don't mean them to, but that's the trouble with social media --it's far too easy for what you say to get to the the eyes or ears of someone you did not intend to reach.

After five years, plenty of mudslinging and serious accusations of drug use and illicit electronic monitoring, the former president of search engine Yahoo has settled her divorce with her husband.

Hopefully, all the rigmarole this couple went through will serve as a cautionary tale for Lexington readers. Divorce does not have to be anywhere near this trying if you follow a few simple guidelines to keep things civil.

Welcome back to our discussion on college tuition and divorce. As we said in the last post, college tuition is an important issue that should be addressed in every divorce involving children. This is especially true in the wake of a South Carolina Supreme Court case holding that college tuition could be considered an extension of child support.

As promised, here are the final tips from a recent Huffington Post article on negotiating your children's college tuition during your divorce settlement: