 So you make it from the current point going forward. That's the general idea. So Alimony received. If you've received Alimony under such an agreement, it is not considered taxable income. And you should not include it in your income on your tax return for the year 2023. So if the divorce, so this is for divorce separation agreements executed after December 31st, 2018, after the new rules in place, the new rule basically being the government's gonna stay out of it, right? And not, and so get out of both child support and Alimony. So the person paying doesn't get the deduction and the person receiving doesn't have to include it in income. That would be the easy thing to do. You might say that's, well that wouldn't be as fair to the person that's paying possibly, because they would have the tax benefit, but you would think it would just make it easier to actually create the divorce agreement because now you don't have the added complexity. So I would think the change in benefits would then be reflected in the change in numbers to the divorce agreement, which should be easier to do, you would think. So Alimony paid similarly, if you pay Alimony under an agreement executed after this date, you cannot deduct these payments from your income. So no deduction and no including in income, even if it's Alimony rather than the child support. So this change represents a significant shift from previous tax law where Alimony received was taxable and Alimony paid could be deducted. So Alimony agreements executed before January 1st, 2019. So you might be saying, especially if you're the one paying Alimony, you're saying, hey, look, I had to execute the agreement and I get the deduction, I'm having to pay all this money, but the reason I was okay with that is because at least I got a tax deduction for it might be some people's situation. And if the agreement was made before the law change, that makes sense. So because that's what they was agreed on. So before that date, for agreements executed before January 1st, 2019, the old rules apply unless their agreement was modified after this date and explicitly states that the TCJA rules apply. Under the old rules, Alimony received if you are receiving Alimony based on an agreement executed before January 1st, 2019, you must include these payments in your taxable income for 2023. So this is something that of course, we have to kind of understand cause there should be symmetry between the two partners, meaning if one partner gets to get the deduction, they have an incentive to want to take the deduction. If they take the deduction, they're gonna put the social security number of the person they paid, the spouse or ex-spouse on the tax return, just as the person who has an employee who wants the deduction for wages has to issue a W2 to the IRS. And that means that the person that receives the money is gonna have to record it on their income or else they'll probably get some kind of letter because they will have received something similar to a W2 form, right? From the other spouse who claimed the deduction. So clearly what would be best of course would be to have things as clear as possible between both spouses so that they have something that makes sense on both tax returns. Obviously that communication can be difficult, especially when the lawyers get involved and whatnot, but that would make it the easiest thing to do generally if it was possible. So alimony paid. If you are paying alimony under such an agreement, you are generally allowed to deduct these payments from your income. Again, look at the date. This is prior to date. Modifications to agreements. So if a divorce or separation agreement was modified after December 31st, 2018, and the modification expressly states that the alimony payments are not deductible by the pay or included in the income of the recipient, then the TCJA rules apply to the modified agreement. So you came up with an agreement before and it was under the old rules. Now you modify it. Be careful. Be careful modifying it because this is a significant impact. Make sure that you're taking that into consideration with the modifications. And the change would be that it would be a benefit. You know, the new rules are beneficial to the recipient who doesn't have to include the money in income and detrimental to the one that is paying. So therefore, if you modify the agreement, you would think you would take that into consideration and come up with an agreement based on the new landscape, right? Which should be easier to do. But child support versus alimony. It's important to distinguish between alimony and child support payments as child support payments are not deductible by the payer and are not taxable to the recipient, regardless of when the agreement was executed or modified. This was always the issue before because they were sneaky. It seems to me they can do like sneaky things and not expressly state as to whether something is alimony or child support. And then we have to do kind of tests to see whether or not the payments that were agreed upon going from one spouse to the other qualifies child support in alimony, which was a pain and could cause further litigation, which again only feeds the lawyers eating, you know, the filet mignon in their $100,000 car or something. So we try to make it simple here. Reporting requirements. For agreements executed before 2019 where alimony is deductible by the payer and taxable to the recipient, the recipient must report alimony received as income. The payer can deduct alimony paid if they itemize deductions on form 1040 schedule one. So once again, we're just looking at the line instructions now. This is for agreements executed before 2019. And notice the form, if they itemized deductions on form 1040 schedule one, we're not talking about the schedule A. So for post-2018 agreements, and we'll talk about the deductible half later as well, we're kind of focused on the income side, but you can see the symmetry between the two, white red, if one gets the deduction, the other where you would think would have to record it as income. So for post-2018 agreements, since alimony is neither deductible nor taxable, there are no specific reporting requirements related to alimony payments on federal income tax returns for either party. So lines 2A and 2B. So now we're specifically looking at the lines, alimony received line 2A. Enter amounts received as alimony or separate maintenance pursuant to a divorce or separation agreement entered into on or before December 31st, 2018, unless that agreement was changed after December 31st, 2018, to expressly provide that alimony received isn't included in your income. Alimony received is not included in your income if you entered into a divorce or separation agreement after December 31st, 2018, if you are including alimony in your income, you must let the person who made the payments know of your social security number. So again, it's just like when you issue a 1099, they gotta have the social security number because they're gonna rat you out because they have to to get if they want the deduction. If you don't to the IRS, they're gonna rat you out to the IRS with your social security number. So if you don't, if you don't, you may have to pay a penalty for more details. You can see publication 504. So if you are including alimony payments from more than one divorce or separation agreement in your income, enter the total of all alimony received online 2A, line 2B. So online 2B, enter the month and year of your original divorce or separation agreement that relates to the alimony payment if any reported online 2A. So now the IRS wants the date because the date will help the IRS to determine if it was properly reported as income given that cutoff date. If you have alimony payments that are more than one divorce or separation agreement online 2B, enter the month or year of the divorce or separation agreement for which you receive the most income. Attach a statement listing the month and year of the other agreements. So if you've got a button, if you're receiving, if you got like 10 people paying you alimony support, then there's not enough room on the box in the form. So you might have to have another added addendum form listing all those individuals paying out the alimony or at least the dates for all the divorce agreements. Okay.