For the past 70 years, family law attorneys have utilized the alimony deduction to help ease the financial burden divorcing families face as they transition to two households. The elimination of the alimony-payments deduction is a major casualty of the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. This change will be costly for divorcing couples and may make settling divorce cases more difficult. In December’s Illinois Bar Journal, family law attorneys Nancy Chausow Shafer and Margaret A. Bennett provide a guide to the new maintenance formula, the repeal of the alimony deduction, and other changes that divorcing couples and their attorneys need to know.

Read more in the December issue of the Illinois Bar Journal.