Article on Happy New Year: Reconsidering the Tax Treatment of Alimony

Tyler Hardcastle & Margaret Ryznar recently published an Article entitled, Happy New Year: Reconsidering the Tax Treatment of Alimony, Tax Law: Tax Law & Policy eJournal (2018). Provided below is an abstract of the Article. 

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 has significant implications for the more than one million Americans divorcing each year. One such consequence taking effect in the New Year is the repeal of §§ 215 and 71, which allowed the deductibility of alimony payments by the payor and included them in the payee spouse’s income. However, these code provisions were good public policy for divorcing couples by incentivizing alimony, and their repeal should thus be reconsidered.