Business people use many different terms and acronyms to refer to the “street name” of a company: d.b.a, a.k.a., trade name, trademark, fictitious name, etc. In Ohio, there is technically no registration process for a “d.b.a.” Furthermore, the various registrations that are available afford very different legal protections to the registrant (or none at all).

House Bill 366 modernizes the child support guidelines. The manner in which child support is calculated in Ohio has needed an overhaul for some time. The last update was in 1992 and the result likely produced orders that were too high for low income people. Additionally, the law fails to account for the ever-changing family structures we now see in today’s world.

The dependency exemption has been replaced by the child tax credit. The tax exemption directly reduced a parties’ taxable income. A credit reduces the parties’ tax liability. In other words, a dependent exemption is the income you can exclude from taxable income for each of your dependents (typically your children). Under the old tax code, parties could exclude $4,050 for each dependent. Now that number is $0, but, if eligible, parties may claim a child tax credit.

Under the current IRS tax code, spousal support is tax deductible by the payor and taxable to the payee. This means that the person paying spousal support is paying pretax dollars, which they can then deduct on their annual return. In other words, people paying alimony under the current law can deduct those payments—no matter how big the amount—from their income before calculating what they owe in taxes. A change in the tax law will eliminate this tax break for spousal support orders that are finalized after December 31, 2018.

At Wick Law, I understand the finer points of drafting prenuptial agreements capable of withstanding attack when the marriage goes awry. Having briefed, argued, and won a multi-million-dollar dispute involving a prenuptial agreement involving novel questions of full disclosure and consent without fraud and coercion, I caution anyone seeking a prenuptial agreement to understand clearly the laws regarding full disclosure and consent without fraud and coercion.