military retirement as alimony

[pinkbike]

the court awarded my ex-spouse 44% of my monthly disposable military retirement as "property." i pay taxes on the whole amount, does she claim the money i send her as income and i claim as deduction? i live in arizona.

 

[loku]

The following rules apply in determining whether payments are alimony:

A payment to or for a spouse under a divorce or separation instrument is alimony if the spouses do not file a joint return with each other and all the following requirements are met.
• The payment is in cash.
• The instrument does not designate the payment as not alimony.
• The spouses are not members of the same household at the time the payments are made. This requirement applies only if the spouses are legally separated under a decree of divorce or separate maintenance.
• There is no liability to make any payment (in cash or property) after the death of the recipient spouse.
• The payment is not treated as child support.

Payments designated as not alimony. You and your spouse can designate that otherwise qualifying payments are not alimony. You do this by including a provision in your divorce or separation instrument that states the payments are not deductible by you and are excludable from your spouse's income. For this purpose, any instrument (written statement) signed by both of you that makes this designation and that refers to a previous written separation agreement is treated as a written separation agreement. If you are subject to temporary support orders, the designation must be made in the original or a later temporary support order.