When getting a divorce, you may be asking yourself, “Can I claim divorce lawyer fees on my taxes?”. Even with the massive potential cost for a divorce in the U.S., lawyer fees are sadly non-tax-deductible. Getting a divorce lawyer is considered to be a personal expense rather than a tax-deductible expense. With it not being actually mandatory to have a divorce lawyer either, it’s a difficult argument to make.
With that being said, although the IRS does very clearly state that almost all costs incurred during a divorce are exempt from being tax-deductible, there are some situations that can still affect your tax return and your general finances. We’ll explore these below.
Non-Deductible Fees
According to the IRS, almost all of the costs that a couple may incur throughout the divorce proceedings are not tax-deductible. Whether that’s something like a divorce lawyer or even expenses such as counselling and support, none of this money is technically tax-deductible since it all falls under a personal expense. That also goes on to include other services as well, such as expert advice, financial analysts, or hired movers.
Even fees that are incurred after the divorce proceedings themselves still remain non-deductible personal expenses in the eyes of the IRS. Things like child support even can rarely be in the same category and all in all, the entire thing becomes very expensive, regardless of the outcome and any child custody situations that result.
Contestable Divorce Fees
Despite all this information pointing towards a huge lack of non-deductible fees involved in the divorce process, there are some fees that can be lessened in the grand scheme of things. The process behind this may not be the simplest, but that isn’t to say they aren’t possible to lighten, depending on the outcome of the divorce and criteria being met as well.
Alimony Acquisition
One of the main areas of tax-deductible fees appearing in diverse proceedings is with the incurrence of alimony. If a party is expected to receive alimony, but still has to spend their own time and money in making efforts to obtain payments of which, then this money is generally seen by the IRS as tax-deductible. The same is not said for things like child support, where tax is not paid in the same way as it is on alimony and therefore does not deem to be tax-deductible.
For any money spent on the pursuit of alimony payments to be classed as tax-deductible, there are criteria that need to be met first. These criteria include paying fees that are greater than 2% of the payors gross taxable income, and only being related to taxable spousal support as mentioned above, ruling out other taxable payments or financial matters exactly like child support.
Increased Costs
Another instance where money may be reclaimed as a result of divorce proceedings occurs when there are issues within the prices itself, rather than with the aftermath. In cases where one party of the divorce proceedings can be argued to be intentionally incurring fees for both parties through intentional delays to the divorce or incurred lawyer’s fees, for example, parties can argue this to a judge. It’s then possible for the judge to deem this excess fee to be paid by the party who caused it, which protects the victim of the situation.
Summary
All in all, the vast majority of fees incurred through divorce are not tax-deductible — and lawyer’s fees especially can be seen to top that list. There is almost no case where this would be possible in the eyes of the IRS, especially with lawyers not being legally required in the process to begin with. Some costs, such as fees incurred through chasing payments for taxable spousal support, may be seen differently, however this is very far away from the fees incurred through the use of lawyers.