Tax Treatment of Alimony
Amounts paid to a spouse or a former spouse under a divorce or separation instrument (including a divorce decree, a separate maintenance decree, or a written separation agreement) may be alimony for federal tax purposes. Alimony is deductible by the payer spouse, and the recipient spouse must include it in income.
Note: You can’t deduct alimony or separate maintenance payments made under a divorce or separation agreement (1) executed after 2018, or (2) executed before 2019 but later modified if the modification expressly states the repeal of the deduction for alimony payments applies to the modification. Alimony and separate maintenance payments you receive under such an agreement are not included in your gross income.
Alimony Requirements
A payment is alimony only if all the following requirements are met:
- The spouses don’t file a joint return with each other;
- The payment is in cash (including checks or money orders);
- The payment is to or for a spouse or a former spouse made under a divorce or separation instrument;
- The divorce or separation instrument doesn’t designate the payment as not alimony;
- The spouses aren’t members of the same household when the payment is made (This requirement applies only if the spouses are legally separated under a decree of divorce or of separate maintenance.);
- There’s no liability to make the payment (in cash or property) after the death of the recipient spouse; and
- The payment isn’t treated as child support or a property settlement.
Payments Not Alimony
Not all payments under a divorce or separation instrument are alimony. Alimony doesn’t include:
- Child support,
- Noncash property settlements, whether in a lump-sum or installments,
- Payments that are your spouse’s part of community property income,
- Payments to keep up the payer’s property,
- Use of the payer’s property, or
- Voluntary payments (that is, payments not required by a divorce or separation instrument).
Child support is never deductible and isn’t considered income. Additionally, if a divorce or separation instrument provides for alimony and child support, and the payer spouse pays less than the total required, the payments apply to child support first. Only the remaining amount is considered alimony.