Is Child Support Taxable?
The federal tax treatment of child support, dependency exemptions, and how it differs from alimony.
Under federal law, child support is tax-neutral: the person paying it cannot deduct it, and the person receiving it does not report it as income. This has been the rule since the 1980s and applies in every state.
Child support vs. alimony
Alimony treatment changed under the 2017 federal tax law: for orders executed after December 31, 2018, alimony is also neither deductible by the payer nor taxable to the recipient. (Older orders may differ.) Child support was always tax-neutral.
Dependency exemption / child tax credit
The parent who has the child the majority of the time generally claims the child tax credit, unless the divorce decree explicitly assigns it to the other parent (which the custodial parent can do for a given year). This is separate from who receives support.