If you or your spouse are considering filing for divorce, there are some divorce facts that you should be aware of. No, I’m not just talking about the statistics around divorces that are regularly quoted in the media. Divorce facts also encompass items such as tax implications, and custody laws.

Of course these laws will vary from state to state so I won’t be going into too much detail here, but just giving a brief heads up about some of the main divorce facts that would be a good idea to keep in mind both during as well as before and after the process.

Let’s begin with looking at the divorce facts surrounding your tax returns. You will need to keep a complete inventory of all fees paid and money received that is to do with your divorce. For example fees paid to lawyers, and money received or paid for support. Depending upon the law of the state in which you reside, you could need to account for such amounts as part of your annual tax return.

Another sad but unavoidable fact of divorce is the effect it will have on your children. I say ‘will’ and not ‘could’ as divorce will, without any doubt, have an effect on them. However, the extent to which it affects them does depend mostly on how you and your spouse behave throughout the whole process and how you communicate with them during this difficult time. The more amicably the proceeding progresses, the less likely that your children will be adversely affected in the long run.

One of the common divorce facts is the increase in poverty. Generally speaking this affects more women than men since it is more common that the wages earned by a man are higher than those earned by a woman. This coupled with the fact that more often than not, the woman retains custody of the children results in the woman being in a less favorable financial position. Even though the woman may receive financial support from the children’s father, it generally isn’t enough to compensate for the same standard of living as if the marriage had remained intact.

Sadly, another of the common divorce facts is that once the process is complete, most people say that if they had known earlier how painful the whole process would be, they would have tried harder to save their marriage in the first place. Something perhaps that you should too bear in mind if you are considering divorce.