How does the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act impact spousal support?

How does the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which will impact your 2019 tax filing, how does that impact spousal support here in Oregon? Spousal support previously, prior to the 2019 tax year, that was income to the receiving spouse and deductible by the paying spouse. So the paying spouse paid no taxes on that money while the receiving spouse counted in his income and had to pay income taxes and potentially other taxes on those funds.

Starting in 2019, it's the paying spouse who now has to pay taxes on those funds. It goes tax free to the receiving spouse. Now, that has caused quite a bit of interest in family law overall, because spousal support awards, when they were tax deductible to the paying spouse was, say, 30% net less. Now they have to pay taxes on those funds, which makes settling some of these issues a bit more difficult. With the advent of the new tax code, it's important to talk to your family law attorney, perhaps a CPA, to see how that's going to impact your income and your net budget monthly, depending on what your spousal support award is.