If you think you might be getting divorced in 2019, 2018 might be a better year to do it. Because, divorce might cost you more under the new tax laws.

Not because the law demands that you give up deceased Aunt Dorothy’s jewelry collection to your soon-to-be ex, but because the tax deductions for alimony are going away.

For people with sizable assets and/or sizable income, this could be a very big deal.

On the other side of the coin, people who get alimony will no longer be required to report it as income, since that money is now going to be taxed at the source – the person that’s paying the alimony. So, big savings for the alimony recipient.

Either way, it’s a big deal – for decades, the recipient had to pay taxes on the alimony they received. Now, that is completely reversed, and the payer is on the hook for the taxes.

Huge change on both ends of that equation.

These changes only apply to people divorced after January 1, 2019.