“Currently, alimony is taxable for the recipient but not the payer. The spouse paying the alimony can deduct it from income before the adjusted gross income is figured. (This is known as an "above the line" deduction.) The recipient then pays taxes on the alimony received. Going forward, however, this would be reversed: Alimony will be paid with aftertax dollars, and the recipient will not have to pay taxes on it.” The full article can be found here: http://news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?id=844758