Alimony

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
February 15, 2025
1 reply
12 views

Are payments made directly to an ex spouse for a portion of military retirement pay considered alimony?

Vanessa A

Level 15

No. This would be considered a retirement distribution made in installments.

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FappianoAuthor

Level 2

Am I allowed to deduct it from my taxable income, and does she need to report it as earned income? The divorce was in 1998.

SabrinaD2

Alumni - Expert

Maybe my question isn’t clear. I know how to add alimony to the form. The problem is that I am getting conflicting information on whether my situation qualifies to be entered as alimony.

my divorce was in 1998

in our division of property she was awarded a percentage of my future military retirement

i started sending her payments directly this year

I was informed during Chat on turbo tax that this is a retirement distribution and that I cannot claim it as alimony

if it qualifies I would like to take the deduction. What I don’t want to happen is to claim and have it rejected by the IRS.

Based on the additional clarifying information if payments are part of community property income, including retirement payments, are generally not considered alimony for tax purposes. This means they aren't deductible as alimony. Instead, they are treated as a division of property

For more detailed information, you can refer to the IRS guidelines on community property here and here.

Please confirm it was part of the division of assets and or community property settlement portion of the divorce.

[Edited 02/16/2025 | 4:47 pm PST] @Fappiano