For couples considering including spousal maintenance in their agreement, spousal maintenance is tax deductible to the payor and taxable to the receiver until December 31, 2018. For divorce agreements signed after January 1, 2019, spousal maintenance will no longer be tax deductible to the payor and will not be taxable to the receiver.
Some couples selling a home are not aware that the law no longer requires them to re-invest the profits from their home sale into another home within 2 years to avoid paying taxes on the profits. That aspect of the law has changed to a provision allowing a $250,000 exemption for a single person and a $500,000 exemption for a couple selling a home. These exemptions are allowed on every sale of a home.
Another tax law provision affecting divorcing couples is the education expense credit and life-time learning deduction. As couples decide how to provide for their children’s educational expenses and how to allocate tax deductions for the children, they will need to consider consulting their accountants to determine whether it would be advantageous for the college age child of a high income couple to no longer be considered a dependent and therefore to take advantage of the educational expense credit.