People typically rush into marriage, not divorces. But a curious change in the GOP’s tax bill means that some couples — or individuals — might rush back to the courthouse. 
 
 The GOP tax bill signed by Trump late last year fundamentally altered many aspects of the tax code, sending accountants scrambling, and stands as the biggest change to the tax system since 1986. Despite long-standing calls to address the federal debt, the tax cuts outlined in the bill came out to be pricey, projected to cost $1.5 trillion or more, with insufficient revenue gains to pay for it. 
 
 One way the Republican bill writers tried to raise revenue to compensate for the cuts was through alimony. Under the new bill, alimony paid by one spouse to the other will not be tax deductible, and the spouse receiving the alimony no longer has to pay taxes on it. In the current system, it works the opposite way, with the payer deducting the full amount and the recipient paying taxes on the alimony at a rate of 15%. The new rule means the government will end up with more of a divorcing pair’s combined money. 
 
 When news dropped that this might be included in the bill in November, things got crazy. 
 
 “When everyone thought the deduction deadline was going to be Dec. 31, we had a rush of clients,” said Madeline Marzano-Lesnevich, president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. “All of a sudden we had clients who were going to be receiving alimony demanding we get them divorced immediately.” 
 
 Ultimately the law won’t take effect until next year, giving divorcing couples a reprieve. But the law does set up 2018 to potentially be a wild year for divorces. 
 
 “Under the new tax bill, things are going to change somewhat drastically and it’s difficult to predict how it’s going to affect parties,” Sheera Gefen, a divorce attorney in New York, told Yahoo Finance. 
 
 It almost sounds like the plot of a Coen brothers movie. In some states, the alimony-seeking spouse may have significant incentive to delay the divorce settlement in order to get the tax benefit in 2019. Meanwhile, the alimony-paying spouse could try to rush it through so they could secure a deduction. What could go wrong? 
 
 Divorces could get a lot messier 
 
 Potentially, a lot. 
 
 Attorneys like Gefen and Marzano-Lesnevich will likely have a much harder time keeping things civil and amicable in divorce disputes, because the alimony payer isn’t only going to have to pay, but will also lose a key deduction. 
 
 “The payer spouse could potentially suffer a much higher financial burden and that’ll make settlement discussions more difficult, more difficult to swallow,” said Gefen. “I think it’s going to cause more fights — and tension between attorneys.” 
 
 Perhaps the largest and most uncomfortable tension will stem from timing. One side could be dragging its feet in an attempt to delay, and the other will be trying to get a deal signed before New Year’s. 
 
 “Depending on who you’re representing you might want to drag it out,” said Gefen. “I’m either going to likely attempt to expedite settlement of global negotiation, or I might want to delay the ultimate.” 
 
 This isn’t so in call cases. In states like New York, there’s a formula for calculating appropriate payments and less leeway for negotiations, so timing may be critical. But for some other states, it’s an open negotiation. 
 
 “Every state is different,” said Marzano-Lesnevich. In states like New Jersey, without a formula, there is considerable incentive for both parties to hustle because the receiving spouse will end up netting less income for a similar out-of-pocket expense from the paying spouse. 
 
 An example of the change 
 
 Marzano-Lesnevich illustrated what it’d be like, using a wealthy client as an example. Under the old system, if a highest-tax bracket, soon-to-be ex spouse was set to pay $100,000 per year in alimony, they would get a deduction off the top — at the highest tax rate of around 40% — so they would only be out around $60,000. The recipient would end up with $85,000 after paying a 15% rate on that $100,000. 
 
 For couples divorcing in 2019, if the wealthier spouse paid $60,000 — the same out-of-pocket cost as the example above (they’d have less money without the deduction) — the other spouse would only get $60,000. 
 
 “We’re shifting the tax, and it’s not to the detriment of the person receiving the money,” said Marzano-Lesnevich. 
 
 Story continues 

 Figuring out alimony has always been difficult for divorce lawyers, mediators and couples trying not to be couples. 
 
 Thanks to the new tax code, it's even tougher. 
 
 In previous years, the pain of alimony stemmed in large part from each state having its own set of rules. These determined how much alimony payments should be and when such payments should end. 
 
 "There's not really a cohesive rationale for alimony," said Mary Kay Kisthardt, a professor of law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. "In any given state, we're not sure what we're trying to do." 
 
 For the last 75 years, however, one rule was clear: Alimony was deductible for the payer, and the recipient paid income tax on it. 
 
 The new code delivers a disruption to those who work in divorce — and those who go through it, experts say, by upending this constant in a highly subjective legal arena. Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, in all divorces after Dec. 31, 2018, alimony will no longer be deductible for the payer, and taxes don't need to be paid on it by the recipient. 
 
 Lawyers are scrambling to understand and react. 

 Republicans may pride themselves on upholding family values, but their new tax law could soon lead to a surge in married couples calling it quits. 
 
 Lawyers are counseling couples considering divorce to do it this year — before a 76-year-old deduction for alimony payments is wiped out in 2019 under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 “Now’s not the time to wait,” said Mary Vidas, a lawyer in Philadelphia and former chair of the American Bar Association’s section on family law. “If you’re going to get a divorce, get it now.” 
 
 Potential divorcees have all of 2018 to use the alimony deduction as a bargaining chip in their negotiations with estranged spouses. 
 
 The deduction substantially reduces the cost of alimony payments — for people in the highest income-tax bracket, it means every dollar they pay to support a former spouse really costs them a little more than 60 cents. 
 
 The change is an example of how the tax law is having far-reaching consequences beyond its corporate and individual tax cuts, in some cases by quietly overturning decades of tax policy. 
 
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 Many divorce lawyers criticize Republicans’ decision to end the break, saying it will make divorces more acrimonious. People won’t be willing to pay as much, they say, which will disproportionately hurt women who tend to earn less and are more likely to be on the receiving end of alimony payments. (Child support payments are not deductible.) 
 
 “The repeal reduces the bargaining power of vulnerable spouses, mostly women, in achieving financial stability after a divorce,” said Brian Vertz, a family law attorney in Pittsburgh. 
 
 Projected to raise $6.9 billion over the next decade, the repeal is one of the ways Republicans defrayed the cost of their tax rewrite. 
 
 A spokesman for House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said, “This is one of the many provisions of the law that removes special rules applicable only in certain circumstances in order to help simplify the code and reduce tax rates for all Americans.” 
 
 The break has also long been criticized as a burden on the IRS because, if the alimony amounts ex-spouses report paying and receiving don’t match, it can force the agency to audit two people who may already be feuding. In 2010, there was a $2.3 billion gap between the reporting, according to the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration. 
 
 Alimony has been deductible since World War II. Added to the code in 1942, lawmakers have long believed it was unfair to tax people on the alimony they paid when the money was not available for them to spend. 
 
 The deduction is a big deal to splitting couples because if someone who earns, say, $250,000 — which puts them in the 24 percent income tax bracket under the new law — agrees to pay $4,000 per month, it really costs the person about $3,000 after taking the deduction into account. 
 
 Without the break, many people will agree to pay only what would have been their after-tax amount — in this case, about $3,000. 
 
 More couples will end up fighting in court because they won’t be able to agree on alimony terms, predicts Madeline Marzano-Lesnevich, head of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. 
 
 “It helps settle cases,” she said. “Without this, we will have husbands saying, 'I'm not paying you that much.'” 
 
 That will have wives asking, “How do I live?” said Marzano-Lesnevich. Many will say, “Get me before a judge so I can plead my case.” 
 
 In an early draft of the tax legislation, House Republicans suggested it was unfair to offer a special break to divorcees, saying the repeal “prevents divorced couples from reducing income tax through a specific form of payments unavailable to married couples.” 
 
 The repeal is one of only a handful of provisions in the tax law that didn’t take effect immediately. While complicated new rules for multinational corporations, unincorporated businesses and a slew of other complex changes took effect Jan. 1, the alimony deduction repeal doesn’t kick in until 2019. 
 
 That’s a relief to many family law attorneys because it otherwise would have upended divorce proceedings around the country as people demanded to renegotiate alimony terms. 
 
 Meeting the deadline won’t necessarily be easy, though, lawyers say. 
 
 Many states have mandatory “cooling-off” periods, for example, for those seeking divorces. In California, people must wait six months before their divorces can be finalized; in Pennsylvania, people in certain circumstances must wait a year. 
 
 “You can’t just file for a divorce today, and expect that you’re going to be divorced tomorrow,” said Ed Lyman, a lawyer in Los Angeles. 
 
 Many lawyers also wonder whether the change affects prenuptial agreements where someone agreed to pay a specified amount of alimony in the event of divorce, on the presumption that it could be deducted. 
 
 Not necessarily everyone will be in a hurry to finalize their divorces, Vertz said. 
 
 Because people receiving alimony next year won’t have to pay taxes on it, some may figure they’re better off waiting, even if their exes complain about losing the deduction. 
 
 “Some spouses may think they have an advantage by delaying,” Vertz said. “The payer wouldn’t have a tax deduction, it’s true, but that won’t necessarily motivate the recipient to demand less.” 
 

– An alimony deduction to be erased in 2019 under the new tax plan has lawyers preparing for a wave of divorces this year—and eying complications for recipients beyond. Payers have long received a tax break on alimony, while recipients have paid income tax on payments. But after Dec. 31, 2018, alimony will no longer be deductible for the payer, and recipients won't need to pay income tax on it, reports Politico. While this will help recipients—primarily women—in one sense, they'll suffer in other ways. As lawyer Madeline Marzano-Lesnevich tells Yahoo, a man in the highest income-tax bracket who pays his wife $100,000 in alimony in 2018 ($85,000 for the woman after taxes) actually pays about $60,000 with the deduction. Without it, he might argue $60,000 is all he can afford to pay, leaving the wife with $25,000 less than before. Attorneys predict the change will complicate divorce negotiations and lead to more cases being heard in court. But some say women will be disproportionally injured by it. "The repeal reduces the bargaining power of vulnerable spouses, mostly women, in achieving financial stability after a divorce," a lawyer tells Politico. Others point out alimony recipients may have a harder time saving for retirement as contributions to retirement accounts often have to come from taxed income, per CNBC. Marzano-Lesnevich says her firm has already had "a rush of clients … demanding we get them divorced immediately" to avoid such complications in 2019. More couples are expected to follow suit this year. Politico reports removing the deduction is expected to raise $6.9 billion over the next decade and help offset the cost of tax cuts outlined in the GOP bill.