Tarrant County Does Not Have a Standing Order

I have filed Divorce Petitions in Collin, Dallas and Denton counties. Today, I am meeting up with a client in Fort Worth to file a Divorce Petition and as I was readying the needed papers, I noticed that Tarrant County does not have standing orders. I checked the Tarrant County clerk's website for a link and even called the Tarrant County Law Library's office and had it confirmed that Tarrant County does not have standing orders must accompany a Divorce Petition. 
The Texas Family Code provides that restraining orders can be requested and served on parties at the beginning of a divorce. To those without a law background, the language present in the standing orders may seem harsh and even accusatory. However, the courts place little significance is attached to it and in most cases the standing orders are more like boilerplate language in an ordinary contract.
In Tarrant County, a party who files for a divorce, may request a "Temporary Restraining Order" (TRO) and an order setting hearing.  This action is needed in Tarrant County because the courts there do not have an immediate "standing order", however,  judges routinely grant TROs and then make them mutual at the first hearing date.
Sometimes parties served with a TRO are worried that they have been accused of a wide range of bad acts. A TRO is just an example of a fairly common approach in the law that warns parties of potential bad behavior, without accusing parties of committing bad behavior. TROs are routine and courts don't put any significance on them as far as proof, or even accusations, of past acts.

How to calculate net income to figure out child support payments?

In Texas, there is a chart/formula created by the Texas Attorney General’s Office (AG) that allows spouses to figure out their "net income." The Texas Attorney General's Office calls the net income chart a "tax chart." 
First, to properly calculate child support you need to come to a yearly gross figure. You can find a gross income from your W-2 form, a year-end paystub, or a calculation based upon your year to date on your paystub. 
Second, that figure will be divided by twelve ("12"), giving you a gross monthly income. 
Third, that figure will then be plugged into the tax table found at: http://www.oag.state.tx.us/cs/attorneys/attorneys_other_tax.shtml. 
Instructions are provided in the link to each years tax chart. 

Can I claim my child's education expenses even though I did not pay my child's tuition?

Question: Can I claim my child's education expenses even though I did not pay my child's tuition?

Answer: If you can claim your child as a dependent and no one else can claim the education expenses, then yes, you may deduct the amount of your child's tuition from your gross income. This is a short answer and is not intended to be legal advice. I received this question via e-mail and researched this particular situation by looking up the rule in the Tax Code. I thought that I would share what I found on my blog. For more information on tax problems and solutions, please visit www.tonyfamlaw.com.

What are Fringe Benefits?

Section 119 of the Internal Revenue Code offers a series of exclusions, where employers can offer fringe benefits to their employees without incurring increased tax liabilities. If employee benefits are not formulated correctly, both employers and employees may incur increased tax liabilities because income was not reported. Sections 119 and 132 offer employers a way to provide fringe benefits without having the value of these benefits count as income for their employees, the following is a short list of exclusions:  meals provided on the job to employees, employee discounts, reimbursement of employee moving expenses and even qualified retirement planning services.
However, employers should use caution when offering employees payments in cash because as the Supreme Court in Commissioner v. Kowalski, 434 U.S. 77 (1977) found, §119 does not include cash payments of any kind. Kowalski was decided before the tax code was revised in 1986 and the current code allows employers a way to offer cash payments to their employees under §125. Section 125 of the Internal Revenue Code allows employers the option of setting up a "Cafeteria Plan." A "Cafeteria Plan" offers employees the option of choosing between receiving fringe benefits or cash and the cash received by the employees would not be counted as income. All of this depends on strict adherence to the requirements of §125. For more information about fringe benefits or other tax issues, please visit www.tonyfamlaw.com or call (214) 872-6406.