Tessa Davis (South Carolina), Amy Soled (Rutgers) & Jay A. Soled (Rutgers; Google Scholar), Revisiting the Tax Remedy of Alimony, 71 U. Kan. L. Rev. 379 (2023) (reviewed by Michelle Layser (San Diego) right here): 

For over half a century, payers may deduct alimony funds whereas, conversely, recipients have been required to incorporate them of their earnings. The seeming symmetry of every greenback deducted being paired with a greenback included seems neatly balanced and in step with the overall tax precept of taxing accretions to wealth. But the superficiality of this coherence belied the extra advanced actuality of the tax remedy of alimony as an space that confused taxpayers whereas concurrently irritating core components of tax coverage.

As a part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, Congress upended the tax remedy of alimony, making it neither deductible for the payer nor includable by the recipient. The legislative historical past relating to the necessity for this reform is nearly nonexistent. To fill this vital hole, this text provides rationales for this legislative initiative.