Is alimony deductible?

The rule in one paragraph

The publication states it twice for emphasis. Alimony is deductible by the payer, and the recipient must include it in income, if the divorce or separation agreement was entered into on or before December 31, 2018. It is not deductible if that agreement was changed after 2018 to expressly provide that alimony received is not included in the former spouse’s income, and it is not deductible if the agreement was entered into after 2018. If your agreement is new, there is nothing to deduct and nothing for the recipient to report. The rest of this page is about the older agreements that still produce a deduction.

How the payer claims it

You must use Form 1040 or 1040-SR; Form 1040-NR cannot be used. Put the alimony you paid on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 19a. On line 19b enter the recipient’s SSN or ITIN, and on line 19c enter the month and year of the original divorce or separation agreement. If you paid more than one person, enter one recipient’s number on line 19b, show the number and amount for each other recipient on an attached statement, and put your total on line 19a. If you do not provide the number, you may pay a $50 penalty and the deduction may be disallowed.

The tests a payment must pass

For instruments executed after 1984 and before 2019, a payment is alimony only if the spouses do not file a joint return and all of these hold: the payment is in cash (checks and money orders included; transfers of services or property do not count); the instrument does not designate the payment as not alimony; spouses legally separated under a decree are not members of the same household when it is paid (leaving within one month of the payment is allowed); there is no liability to make payments after the recipient’s death; and the payment is not treated as child support. Payments to a third party, such as medical bills or rent under the instrument, can qualify.

The three-year recapture rule

If alimony decreases or ends during the first three calendar years, the payer may have to include part of what was deducted in income in the third year, and the recipient may deduct that part. The three years start with the first calendar year of qualifying payments under a decree or written separation agreement; time spent under temporary support orders does not count. Recapture applies if third-year alimony falls by more than $15,000 from the second year, or if second- and third-year alimony falls significantly from the first. The publication excludes payments under a temporary order, payments that vary as a fixed part of business or employment income over at least three years, and drops caused by the death of either spouse or the recipient’s remarriage before the end of year three.

Worked example

The publication’s own example: $50,000 in year one, $39,000 in year two and $28,000 in year three. Worksheet 1 works like this. Line 1 is $39,000 and line 2 is $28,000; adding the $15,000 floor to line 2 gives $43,000, and $39,000 minus $43,000 is below zero, so line 5 is $0. The adjusted second year is $39,000, which added to $28,000 and divided by two is $33,500. Add the $15,000 floor for $48,500 and subtract from the first-year $50,000 to get $1,500 on line 13. Recaptured alimony is $1,500. The payer reports it on Schedule 1, line 2a, crossing out “received” and writing “recapture”; the recipient deducts it on line 19a.

What is never deductible as alimony

Child support, noncash property settlements, a spouse’s part of community income, payments to keep up the payer’s property and the value of the payer’s property use are all outside alimony. When you own the home and your spouse lives there, your mortgage, tax and repair payments are not alimony, though you may deduct real estate taxes and qualifying mortgage interest as an itemized deduction. The publication’s Table 4 splits payments on a jointly owned home. Legal fees to get a divorce, or to get alimony, are also not deductible.

Where to go next

To check whether a given agreement is old or new, use the alimony taxability page. To see how the deduction fits among your brackets, the federal tax brackets page lists the rates. The calculator above handles only the recapture arithmetic from Worksheet 1; it does not decide whether your payments qualify.

Sources

• IRS Publication 504, Divorced or Separated Individuals (2025): Deducting alimony paid, Alimony Requirements, Recapture of Alimony and Worksheet 1. Read November 2, 2026.

Edition read: Publication 504 (2025), for use in preparing 2025 returns. Dollar limits and dates in this publication are for 2025; check the current publication and form instructions for your tax year. This page summarizes the publication and does not replace it.