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Alimony Payment Research Paper

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Alimony is a court order payment made under a divorce or separate maintenance decrees between former spouses. Payments are considered alimony when you no longer file a return with your former spouse, the payment is received in cash, the payment is received by your former spouse, if the divorce or separation agreement doesn’t not state that the payment is alimony, or you and your former spouse no longer live together. Payments must stop after former spouse’s death and the payment is not treated as child support or a property settlement. Not all payments under a divorce or separation instrument are considered alimony such as child support, noncash property settlements, or any other voluntary payments not required by the separation agreement. [IRC …show more content…

If one is subjected to this rule, they must include part of the alimony previously deducted in their income in the third year. While the ex-spouse can deduct part of the alimony payments they previously received from their income in the same time period. The three-year period begins once the alimony payer has made a qualifying alimony payment under a divorce decree. Reasons that can require a recapture include a change in your divorce or separation instrument, a failure to make timely payments, a reduction in ability to provide support, or a reduction in your former spouses need for support. A taxpayer is subject to the recapture rule if the alimony paid in the third year decreases by more than $15,000 or the alimony paid in the second and third years decreases significantly from alimony paid in the first year. When calculating decreasing alimony one cannot include payments made under a temporary order, payments required over a period of at least 3 calendar years that may vary (for example, income from a rental property), or payments that decrease because of the death of either spouse or a

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