An “End of Year” gift?

While it was reported by the Associated Press that Jon Gosselin brought a bouquet of red roses for his estranged wife, Kate, to their arbitration session this past weekend, that is not the gift to which I was referring. Instead, I was referring to the statement attributed to Jon’s lawyer, Mark Heller, that the decision of the arbitrator was expected by Christmas and that the divorce could be finalized by the end of the year.

I previous posted an explanation of how quickly a divorce action can proceed, so I am not going to repeat that posting; however, I did want to discuss the reasons why someone would want a divorce decree to be entered by the end of the year.

The primary reason for having a divorce decree entered by the end of the year is for tax-purposes. A person’s marital status as of the end of the calendar year is an important factor in determining that person’s filing status. If a person was married as of December 31st regardless of when the couple actually were married, that person and his or her spouse can file their taxes as “married, filing jointly” or “married, filing separately” as they choose. If someone was married on December 31st, that person could not file that year’s tax return as a “single person”. Only people who are not married (never married, no longer married, or widowed) can file as “single”.

Some medical insurance plans allow its participants to make changes to their policies at specific times of the year. If the new year is one of those times when someone can make a change to his or her policy, it may be important to have a divorce decree entered by the end of the year. A person may not be allowed to remove his or her spouse from a health insurance plan (which may result in lower premiums) until a divorce decree is entered.

Some people may just want to start their new, post-divorce lives in conjunction with a new year. It is possible to come up with a myriad of reasons why someone may want a decree to be entered by the end of the year. Taxes, however, tend to be the primary reason.

Only time will tell if the Gosselin divorce will be finalized before the stroke of midnight on December 31, 2009.