Help Needed on DRO

[ACA97]

My ex-spouses pension does not accept QDROs.  Instead we have to use a court ordered DRO to outline how the ex is to distribute my portion of his pension. Because the QDRO is not accepted the pension payment will only go to my ex and then he is supposed to transfer my portion.  The DRO currently states that after taxes my ex is to distribute my portion from the remaining monthly net.   Since he is the one receiving the money he will be responsible for paying the taxes and can assign any percentage to be withheld.  This doesn’t seem right that I am at his mercy for how much tax is being paid. I need help with how this should be worded.   Shouldn’t this be worded to say that  my monthly percentage will be calculated after his effective tax rate (of the pension earnings only) is subtracted from the monthly gross?    Does anyone know who can help with this.  My QDRO atty will not help, and I’ve  called 3 tax attorneys that all said they can’t help. The CPAs I’ve contacted are too busy to help.  Any ideas?

[dmertz]

You should discuss this with your attorney so your attorney can make sure that everyone has the same understanding of what "after taxes" means.

"After taxes" generally means the amount that remains after subtracting the amount by which the distribution increases your ex-husband's tax liability,  That has nothing to do with the amount that your ex-husband has withheld from the distribution for taxes.  Tax liability and tax withholding are two different things.  For example, if the distribution is $1,000 and it increases your ex-husband's tax liability by $220 because his marginal tax rate is 22%, using this method your ex-husband would be paying you $780 no matter how much of the distribution he has withheld for taxes.