Under the alimony US UK tax treaty rule in Article 17(5), periodic maintenance paid by a resident of one country to a resident of the other is exempt from tax in both, unless the payer gets tax relief for it at home. Then only the recipient's country may tax it. Because US alimony under a post-2018 instrument is not deductible, and the UK rarely gives relief, most cross-border payments end up taxed nowhere. Child support is never taxed in either country. The text is among the US-UK treaty documents (opens the official IRS page in a new tab).
This post is for separated and divorced people where one former spouse lives in America and the other in Britain, and for US citizens in the UK who pay or receive maintenance. It goes deeper than our guide to avoiding US-UK double taxation on one narrow point: the payments themselves. It does not cover dividing property or choosing a filing status. It covers the US rules, the UK rules, the treaty, the saving clause, a worked example and a decision table.
Is alimony taxable on a US return after a divorce
It depends on when the divorce or separation instrument was executed. Under IRS Publication 504, alimony paid under an instrument executed after 31 December 2018 is not deductible by the payer and is not income to the recipient. Under an older instrument, qualifying alimony is deductible by the payer and taxable to the recipient.
An older instrument keeps the old treatment even if the amount is later varied, unless the modification expressly states that the alimony is not deductible to the payer and not includible in the recipient's income. A routine change in the payment amount does not switch regimes on its own. The wording of the variation order matters, and it is worth checking before anyone signs it.
Under the old rules, a payment counts as alimony only if every condition below is met. Where it does, the payer claims it on Schedule 1 of Form 1040 (opens the official IRS page in a new tab) and the recipient reports it on the same schedule. Publication 504 also requires the recipient to give the payer a Social Security number or ITIN, and warns that the deduction may be disallowed without one. Our Form 1040 page explains where the schedules fit.
- Paid in cash. Transfers of property and services do not count
- Not designated as something else. The instrument must not say the payment is not alimony
- Separate households. Required where the spouses are legally separated under a decree
- Ends on death. No obligation to keep paying after the recipient dies
- Not child support. Amounts tied to a child are excluded
- No joint return. The spouses must not file jointly with each other
Is spousal or child maintenance taxable in the UK
Generally not. Maintenance payments have been exempt from UK income tax since 6 April 2000, so a UK resident who receives spousal or child maintenance does not pay income tax on it. The other side of that rule is that the payer, in almost every case, gets no tax relief for the payments either.
The exemption reaches payments from abroad. Section 727 of the Income Tax (Trading and Other Income) Act 2005 exempts annual payments made by individuals that arise in the UK, and section 730 extends this to foreign maintenance payments that would be exempt had they arisen here. A maintenance payment means a periodical payment under a court order or agreement, written or oral, to or for a spouse or former spouse, or for someone under 21.
Relief for the payer survives only in a narrow form. GOV.UK's page on income tax relief on maintenance payments limits it to cases where either former spouse was born before 6 April 1935, the payments are made under a court order after the relationship has ended, and the former spouse has not remarried. It is a small fixed fraction of the payments, capped each year, and very few people still qualify. Our UK Self Assessment team checks whether a claim is possible.
How the alimony US UK tax treaty rule works
Article 17(5) covers periodic payments under a written separation agreement or a divorce decree, separate maintenance and compulsory support, including support for a child. When a resident of one country pays a resident of the other, the payments are exempt in both countries. If the payer is entitled to tax relief for them at home, they are taxable only in the recipient's country.
The Treasury's technical explanation (opens the official US Treasury page in a new tab) draws out the two results. Child support passing between residents of the two countries is taxable in neither, provided the payer cannot deduct it. Deductible alimony is taxable only in the recipient's state of residence. The treaty text, as given effect in the UK, is on GOV.UK as USA: tax treaties (opens the official GOV.UK page in a new tab).
Three points of reading follow. Residence means treaty residence under Article 4, so a person resident in both countries needs the tie-breaker first, explained in our post on dual residence and the tie-breaker. The article applies only across the border, so it does nothing for two former spouses who both live in London. And the exception looks at relief in the payer's country of residence, not anywhere else.
Does the saving clause let the US tax a citizen's alimony
Not where Article 17(5) applies. The saving clause in Article 1(4) lets the United States tax its citizens as if the treaty did not exist, but Article 1(5)(a) excepts paragraph 5 of Article 17. The technical explanation says a US citizen resident in the UK is not subject to US tax on child support or alimony.
That reaches further than it first appears. A US citizen in Britain receiving deductible alimony under a pre-2019 instrument from a former spouse in America would owe US tax on it under domestic law. The treaty gives the payments to the UK alone, and section 730 then exempts them there. The payer keeps the deduction and the recipient pays tax in neither country. Our post on the saving clause lists the other protected benefits.
The protection is lost when both former spouses live in the same country. A US citizen resident in the UK who receives pre-2019 alimony from a former spouse also living in the UK is outside Article 17(5), so the saving clause leaves the US domestic rule in place: the alimony is income on the US return. No UK tax arises to credit against it, so the full US charge stands.
How does this work for a divorced American in Bristol
Take a US citizen who has lived in Bristol for six years and is UK resident under the treaty. Her divorce from a husband who still lives in Texas was finalised by a Texas decree in 2016. He pays her monthly alimony and separate support for their son, who lives with her and attends a school nearby.
The decree predates 2019, so under domestic law the alimony is deductible by him and taxable to her. He is entitled to relief in his country of residence, which brings in the exception in Article 17(5): the alimony is taxable only in the UK. The saving clause cannot override that, and section 730 exempts foreign maintenance in the UK, so she pays tax on the alimony in neither country. He claims the deduction and needs her Social Security number to do it.
The son's support is child support. It is not deductible by him, not income to her in the US and not taxable in the UK. If they later vary the decree and the variation expressly adopts the post-2018 rules, his deduction ends and the alimony becomes exempt in both countries under the main rule of Article 17(5). Her US return now relies on the treaty, and whether that position needs disclosure on Form 8833 (opens the official IRS page in a new tab) is something our individual tax returns service checks each year.
Which rule applies to your payments: a decision table
Start with where each of you is resident under the treaty, then the date of the instrument, then whether the payment is alimony or child support. Each line below gives the result in both countries. Our summary of the US-UK tax treaty shows where Article 17 sits among the other articles, and our Form 8833 page covers disclosure.
One case is unsettled. Where a US citizen living in the UK pays alimony under a pre-2019 instrument to a former spouse in America, the UK gives no relief, so the payments are exempt in both countries under Article 17(5). US domestic law would still allow the payer a deduction. We have found no IRS or Treasury guidance on whether both results can stand together. Our treaty relief service reviews the facts before either return is filed, and our guide to avoiding US-UK double taxation sets the treaty in context.
- US payer, UK recipient, instrument after 2018. No US deduction; exempt in both countries, including for a US citizen recipient
- US payer, UK recipient, older instrument not modified. Payer deducts; taxable only in the UK, where foreign maintenance is exempt
- UK payer, US recipient, instrument after 2018. No relief in either country; exempt in both
- UK payer, US recipient, older instrument. No UK relief in most cases, so exempt in both despite the old US rule
- Both resident in the same country. Article 17(5) does not apply; each country's domestic rules decide
- Child support in any of these cases. Never deductible and never taxable in the US; exempt in the UK
General information, not advice. The right answer depends on your circumstances and the tax year concerned.
