Payments to ex not alimony to IRS.

Kiplinger Tax Letter, The, September, 1996

Payments to an ex can be alimony for bankruptcy...but not for IRS. Under a divorce decree, a husband was ordered to pay his ex-wife $175,000 in monthly instalments of $3,000. The next year, he filed for bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy court said payments were alimony...refused to discharge debt to his ex-wife. He deducted $3,000 per month as alimony on his 1040.

But payments are not deductible as alimony, a district court says, because they might not end on the ex's death. Bankruptcy court's finding that the payments were alimony doesn't matter...the payments must satisfy tax code's definition of alimony to be deductible (Votzmeyer, D.C., Tex.).

So he loses twice...must keep paying his ex and gets no deduction.