Maintenance and the New Tax Laws

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 was signed into law on December 22, 2017. The Act is a significant change to previous tax laws that will affect individuals, businesses and tax-exempt organizations. The new law will also affect divorcing individuals in the state of Colorado. The major change in the Internal Revenue Code affects maintenance, also called alimony in some states, which now will not be tax deductible for the paying spouse. Instead, this payment from one spouse to the other must be paid on an after-tax basis. There is no doubt this will place an increased tax burden on the paying spouse and some argue it may also make the amount of the maintenance and its determination more difficult to calculate. Under the previous law, maintenance payments were tax deductible for the paying spouse. The payments always were and will continue to be income to the receiving spouse requiring the payment of any taxes on that income. Maintenance is determined by statute in any dissolution case but now the Court must take into account the payor’s tax burden as well as the receiving soon-to-be ex-spouse’s income and needs.