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Change Is Needed: The Taxation Of Alimony And Child Support, Laura Bigler

Cleveland State Law Review

When a marriage dissolves there are tax consequences for everything from distribution of property to custody of the couple's children. The current tax system for alimony and child support strengthens the possibility of financial devastation. Under the present system, alimony and child support have opposite tax treatment. Many complicated rules have been added to distinguish between alimony and child support, which will be discussed later in this paper. There must be a simplification of the present law so that the average divorced taxpayer will be able to understand and implement the rules with or without sophisticated tax counsel or an …