Alimony Agreements Executed Before 2019: Payment Rules: Taxes After Divorce or Separation (2025 IRS Guide)

This guide covers “Alimony Agreements Executed Before 2019: Payment Rules” within taxes after divorce or separation. The following material presents the IRS treatment of this topic, including the qualifications, exceptions, and examples in the source section. Read the rules alongside the facts of your own situation before deciding what to report, deduct, or document.

Adapted from Publication 504 (2025), Divorced or Separated Individuals, published by the Internal Revenue Service. This guide retains the source edition’s years, amounts, deadlines, and examples. It is guidance for that edition, not a statement that the same figures apply to every tax year.

Context for these rules

.Amounts paid as alimony or separate maintenance payments under a divorce or separation instrument executed after 2018 won’t be deductible by the payer. Such amounts also won’t be includible in the income of the recipient. The same is true of alimony paid under a divorce or separation instrument executed before 2019 and modified after 2018, if the modification expressly states that the alimony isn’t deductible to the payer or includible in the income of the recipient. See Certain Rules for Instruments Executed or Modified After 2018, later..

Alimony is a payment to or for a spouse or former spouse under a divorce or separation instrument. It doesn’t include voluntary payments that aren’t made under a divorce or separation instrument.

Although this discussion is generally written for the payer of the alimony, the recipient can also use the information to determine whether an amount received is alimony.

To be alimony, a payment must meet certain requirements. There are some differences between the requirements that apply to payments under instruments executed after 1984 and to payments under instruments executed before 1985. General alimony requirements and specific requirements that apply to post-1984 instruments (and, in certain cases, some pre-1985 instruments) are discussed in this publication. See Instruments Executed Before 1985, later, if you’re looking for information on where to find the specific requirements that apply to pre-1985 instruments.

Alimony Agreements Executed Before 2019: Payment Rules

If you entered into a divorce or separation agreement on or before December 31, 2018, and the agreement has not been changed after December 31, 2018, to expressly provide that alimony received is not included in your former spouse’s income, the following rules apply.

Payments not alimony.

Not all payments under a divorce or separation instrument are alimony. Alimony doesn’t include:

• Child support,

• Noncash property settlements,

• Payments that are your spouse’s part of community income, as explained later under Community Property,

• Payments to keep up the payer’s property, or

• Use of the payer’s property.

Example.

Under your written separation agreement, your spouse lives rent-free in a home you own and you must pay the mortgage, real estate taxes, insurance, repairs, and utilities for the home. Because you own the home and the debts are yours, your payments for the mortgage, real estate taxes, insurance, and repairs aren’t alimony. Neither is the value of your spouse’s use of the home.

If utility payments otherwise qualify as alimony, you may be able to deduct these payments as alimony. Your spouse must report them as income. If you itemize deductions, you can deduct the real estate taxes and, if the home is a qualified home, you can also include the interest on the mortgage in figuring your deductible interest. However, if your spouse owned the home, see Example 2 under Payments to a third party, later. If you owned the home jointly with your spouse, see Table 4, later. For more information, see Pub. 936.

Child support.

To determine whether a payment is child support, see the discussion under Certain Rules for Instruments Executed After 1984 But Before 2019, later. If your divorce or separation agreement was executed before 1985, see the 2004 revision of Pub. 504, available at IRS.gov/FormsPubs.

Underpayment.

If both alimony and child support payments are called for by your divorce or separation instrument, and you pay less than the total required, the payments apply first to child support and then to alimony.

Example.

Your divorce decree calls for you to pay your former spouse $200 a month ($2,400 ($200 x 12) a year) as child support and $150 a month ($1,800 ($150 x 12) a year) as alimony. If you pay the full amount of $4,200 ($2,400 + $1,800) during the year, you can deduct $1,800 as alimony and your former spouse must report $1,800 as alimony received for a divorce decree executed prior to 2019. If you pay only $3,600 during the year, $2,400 is child support. You can deduct only $1,200 ($3,600 – $2,400) as alimony and your former spouse must report $1,200 as alimony received instead of $1,800. This is because the payments apply first to child support and then to alimony.

Payments to a third party.

Cash payments, checks, or money orders to a third party on behalf of your spouse under the terms of your divorce or separation instrument can be alimony, if they otherwise qualify. These include payments for your spouse’s medical expenses, housing costs (rent, utilities, etc.), taxes, tuition, etc. The payments are treated as received by your spouse and then paid to the third party.

Example 1.

Under your 2018 divorce decree, you must pay your former spouse’s medical and dental expenses. If the payments otherwise qualify, you can deduct them as alimony on your return. Your former spouse must report them as alimony received and can include them in figuring deductible medical expenses.

Example 2.

Under your 2018 separation agreement, you must pay the real estate taxes and mortgage payments on a home owned by your spouse. If they otherwise qualify, you can deduct the payments as alimony on your return, and your spouse must report them as alimony received. Your spouse may be able to deduct the real estate taxes and home mortgage interest, subject to the limitations on those deductions. See the Instructions for Schedule A (Form 1040). However, if you owned the home, see the example under Payments not alimony, earlier. If you owned the home jointly with your spouse, see Table 4.

Life insurance premiums.

Alimony includes premiums you must pay under your divorce or separation instrument for insurance on your life to the extent your spouse owns the policy.

Payments for jointly owned home.

If your divorce or separation instrument states that you must pay expenses for a home owned by you and your spouse or former spouse, some of your payments may be alimony. See Table 4.

However, if your spouse owned the home, see Example 2 under Payments to a third party, earlier. If you owned the home, see the example under Payments not alimony, earlier.

Table 4. Expenses for a Jointly Owned Home

• Use the table below to find how much of your payment is alimony and how much you can claim as an itemized deduction.

• ¹ Your spouse (or former spouse) can deduct the other half of the interest if the home is a qualified home.
  ² Your spouse (or former spouse) can deduct the other half of the real estate taxes.

Using the guidance

Keep the documents that establish the dates, amounts, and circumstances described above. References to other chapters, forms, worksheets, or earlier and later sections refer to the linked IRS publication. Check the full publication and its updates before relying on a rule for a different tax year or a situation not addressed here.

Sources and further reading

• Publication 504 (2025), Divorced or Separated Individuals: Alimony — Alimony Payment Rules for Instruments Executed Prior to 2019 — Internal Revenue Service; 2025 edition.

The cited U.S. government text is in the public domain. Source accessed October 28, 2026. Fynoptic has organized this material for educational use and is independent of, and not endorsed by, the IRS.