Alimony Payments

[DE66]

I signed a legal separation agreement on 4/1/2015.  Officially divorced on 12/23/2022.  I did not pay any alimony payments until after the divorce - can I claim alimony payments for 2023?

[MonikaK1]

It depends. What were the terms of the legal separation agreement entered into in 2015? If the alimony payments weren't ordered until the time of the divorce in 2022, then they aren't deductible on your Federal return.

Generally, alimony or separate maintenance payments are deductible by the payer spouse and includible in the recipient spouse's income if paid under a divorce or separation agreement executed before 2019.

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.

Also, not all payments under a divorce or separation instrument are alimony or separate maintenance. Alimony or separate maintenance 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).

See IRS Topic 452 or Publication 504 for more information.

California doesn't conform to Federal law on this issue. See here for more information. Alimony is still deductible by the payer and reportable as income by the recipient on the California state return, if the agreement was entered into in 2019 or later. 

[Opus 17]

Alimony is not deductible for divorces finalized after Jan 1, 2019 (and also not taxable to the recipient).  If there was alimony in the separation order, it was deductible up until the divorce was finalized.  Then, in the final divorce, the parties and their attorneys had the option to either continue the alimony under the old deductible rules or change to the new non-deductible rules.  So you need to know what your separation agreement and divorce agreement actually said.