Taxes: how to declare income during the divorce year?

Updated on Tuesday 18 February 2020

The marital status of each taxpayer is assessed on December 31 of the taxation year. During the year of a divorce, each person must complete a single declaration which includes their personal income for the entire year and the proportion of common income, accruing to the latter.

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Divorce and fiscal solidarity

Marriage (with exceptions) leads to a solidarity of the spouses for the payment of income taxes. During the year of divorce, once everyone has declared, the wife is no longer jointly and severally liable for the payment of income tax on her ex-husband and vice versa. But fiscal solidarity is preserved for the previous periods of joint tax (except disposal, under certain conditions).

Divorce and alimony fiscality

Minor children are theoretically attached to the family unit of the parent with whom the habitual residence is established. This parent then benefits from an increase in the family quotient (his number of shares) which varies depending on his situation and the number of children. The other parent is not entitled to any increase but, in return, deducts from the alimony he may pay for the maintenance and education of his children, from his income (his ex-spouse before him declared). The pension granted for an adult child is also deductible, but within a limit which is annually set by the law.

In case of alternating residence, the increase in quotient is shared between the parents.

Divorce and compensatory allowance fiscality

For benefits paid in the form of capital

  • When the debtor spouse pays the capital in its entirety, within 12 months of the date on which the judgment is final, he benefits from a tax reduction of 25% of the amount paid, up to a limit of 30,500€. The beneficiary spouse is not, in turn, taxed on this capital.
  • When the capital is paid over a period of more than 12 months, it is then deductible from the total income of the debtor spouse and taxed for the creditor spouse.

For benefits paid in the form of an annuity

The benefit is deductible from taxable income, for those who pay the latter and taxable for those who receive it, in the same lines as child support paid for a minor child.