Definitely a mess. The child support ended long ago, my son turned 18 in 2019.
As for coming to the conclusion that the military retirement portion is tax free, an irs agent assisted me in doing my taxes at the irs building in Florida, where I lived at the time (2005). She used the divorce decree when filing my taxes and she said it was not only tax free but it didn't need to be reported at all because my ex wife paid the taxes on that money that was court ordered to be disbursed to me.
This was 20 years ago and after I left Florida, I continued filing my taxes as she instructed me until 2020 when I became permanently disabled and unable to fill them out myself. I've had a tax preparer in my area filling them out since 2021, also using the divorce decree.
I can not afford a tax attorney at this point in my life so I really don't know what to do. The irs told me that it was tax free income and I've been unable to reach anyone at the irs office by me nor at the irs.gov phone number and I am now homebound so I can't try to visit them.
I'm completely scrambled and confused by all of this now.
