When a divorce trial has come to an end, and everything is settled and planned out, it is extremely common that one spouse will start paying the other spouse per the agreements made in court. Two of the most common sorts of payments are alimony and child support. It is important to note that these are two very different types of payments, not only in terms of where that money is supposed to go, but also how it might affect your taxes.
Alimony is the term used to describe spousal support. The spousal part of it really is what differentiates it from child support. Alimony is paid from one spouse to their ex so that the receiver can keep a certain similarity to the way they lived during the marriage that they had grown accompanied to during the marriage. Most divorce agreements include a form of support of the parties generates significantly more income than the other, and so logically the spouse who brings in more money will be the alimony payer. The person who is providing support is usually allowed to claim the payment as tax deductible, while the person who is receiving the alimony must file the support payments as income.
Child support is considered in its own, unique terms in divorce agreements, and not paired with any ruling about alimony. The idea of child support is self-explanatory; it is a payment that is intended to aid in the raising of children, therefore not more money for a spouse to spend. The supervisory parent whom the court has determined, who will have more time with the children commonly is the support-receiver, and will be spending overall more money on the children than the parent who is not looking after the children as much. These payments usually stop once the child reaches 18, or 21, depending on if they go to college and any monetary necessities stemming from that. Unlike with spousal support, you will not get a tax deduction for your child support and the parent who is getting paid the child support does not have to pay income tax for this support payment.