What You Should Know About Divorce and Taxes

We’re in the thick of tax season now, but it also happens to be the time of year at which divorces surge. Therefore, if you’re starting a divorce process now, it’s important you keep tax considerations in mind.

Here are a few things you should know about divorce and taxes.

• Know your filing status: If you are going through a divorce, you can still file under the Married Filing Jointly status so long as you were still legally married as of December 31 at the end of the tax year. If you were divorced by the end of the tax year, you should consider Head of Household status if you are the custodial parent for your children, otherwise you will file as a single taxpayer even if you were married for part or most of the year.
• Child support: Child support will have some tax implications. It is not deductible for the payer, and is not reported as income.
• Alimony: The rules for alimony have changed since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Now, alimony is no longer tax deductible for the payer, and is not reported as income for the recipient, same as child support. However, this is only for agreements finalized after December 31, 2018. Those from 2018 or before will still follow the old rules.
• Dependents: Your divorce decree should contain information about who will be able to claim the children as dependents. If the decree does not specify this information, the custodial parent will be able to claim them. Or, if you have joint custody, the parent with the greatest number of days of custody during the tax year gets to claim them.

For more information about some of the areas in which divorce and taxes overlap, contact an experienced Long Island divorce lawyer at Bryan L. Salamone & Associates.