Dear experts, I am married since 16 years and we have 2 sons,one is 13 years and other is 7 years old. I am living in a rental with my wife and children since past 10 months. Due to certain issues, my wife and inlaws want to break the marriage (even though I am not in favour of breaking up). I've tried my best to resolve every issue but it looks like I may not be able to save the relation due to the misunderstandings created by them. She mentioned that she will soon divorce me and go to parents house forever with the children and claim maintenance amount from me. After hearing this, I am afraid that inlaws may put me into some fake divorce case or fake DV case trouble since their other son in law (my wife's sister's husband) had gone through similar problem with a DV case on him and forced to pay a huge amount of maintenance,even though I believe he did nothing wrong and was a victim of fake allegations. I have stocks which were bought in my name by my late grandfather and the current market value is worth more than 2 crore. I receive dividends every year on them which I declare in income tax return. These are my main income source and my wife and inlaws do not know details about these stocks and dividends. My wife is housewife and has lower qualifications than myself. I am not doing job anywhere. My aim is to reduce the impact of the stocks/dividends on maintenance amount. I have these questions: 1)How I can reduce maintenance amount? I have read that maintenance is claimed based on income and IT return. 2)Is selling the stocks a good idea? Ideally I don't want to sell them as I believe it is a good future investment but if I sell them then the dividend income (my main source) will no longer show in return and will that bring down maintenance? 3)If I sell the stocks to show less assets, then the cash proceeds will still come to my bank account, will that increase the maintenance amount again or cause any other problems? any suggestions on how I can then reduce maintenance? 4)To protect the stocks without selling them, can I form a trust and become the trustee or beneficiary so that trust owns the stock and not myself? Will that make dividends go to the beneficiary instead of myself and reduce the maintenance? Can you please advise me with any solutions. Thank you in advance.
You should sell your stocks .if your don’t want dividends income to be reflected in your tax returns
2) you can transfer some funds to your parents to reduce sale proceeds in your bank account
3) maintenance depends upon your income ,wife income , standard of living etc
The maintenance amount is claimed on the basis of the husband's income. Now if you declare a certain income then that has to be revealed before a court in an affidavit.
You don't have to sell the stocks. The income from the stocks can be given ie a lump sum amount. If you aren't employed then the maintenance would also come down.
Rather than taking such drastic steps what you can do is contest any case she files against you ie maintenance. If still she wants out then you have to part with some of your income. You cannot hide your income.
1. The quantum of maintenance will be decided on the basis of proven take home income.
The income tax returns is a substantial proof if you are an assessee.
2. If you don't want the inflated income to be disclosed in your ITR, you may decide to sell the shares considerably and deposit the amount in any nationalised bank, don't reveal the details in ITR, this will help you show a lower income.
3. You don't show the bank statement and can safely open a different bank account where you can park the share sale proceeds.
4. If you are the author of the trust then you may not become a beneficiary too, in any case that should be reflected in the ITR.
You can analyse the second point above to consider reduced maintenance amount.
You can only reduce maintenance amount by showing some change in circumstances from the date it was first awarded.
Don't sell the same it will not help you in any way
Even if you do that the trail to avoid maintenance can be easily seen
Hi, As per Supreme Court Judgment both the parties need to file affidavit declaring their assets and liabilities and if the declaration is false then the will prosecuted as per law. So if you filed a false affidavit then you are in trouble and if you transfer the shares to the trust and if the court came to know that you did intentionally in order to avoid the maintenance then also you are in trouble.
do you client I am sorry to hear that but in this case even the stock price can be used to Clay maintenance by your life however you may reduce the amount of maintenance given to your wife by following certain step.. for instance you can show liability on her part for the breakdown of marriage . For the you can prove desertion. You can show your liability and say that the only source of income for you is the dividend that you earn from the stock market etc following all those ways you made it used amount of maintenance. Further more you can negotiate on the amount of maintenance that you will be supposed to give to your wife.
