I have been given to understand that the quantum of alimony payable to the wife "would be" between 1/5th to 1/3th of the husband's income LESS the income of the wife. It is in this context that I have the following questions for this forum -
1. Is the above (1/5 - 1/3) only a guideline or is it sacrosanct and based on specific higher Court judgments ? Does the amount not depend on the number of children under the custody of the payee & payor parents ?
2. Is the amount all-inclusive or are husbands ADDITIONALLY liable to provide residential accommodation etc.?
3. Since the interest amount of any PPF account is 'earnings' by definition AND is open to withdrawal after a certain number of years as per PPF regulations, are such amounts considered as 'earnings' for the purpose of alimony calculation ?
4. From personal experience I find that alimony pendentilite is taxable which means both my wife and I pay income tax for the same amount of money. Is there no ruling against such obvious double-taxation ?
5. Unless clearly proven otherwise, is not the ITR expected to representative of the actual earnings of the respective parties for the purpose of computation of alimony ?
The questions that keep cropping up as each frustrating day goes by are many but I thought I would limit it to the above five and look forward to answers here.
Thanks
