The rest of what we have written about Massachusetts. Every figure is quoted from Massachusetts’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.
Dividing property and money in a Massachusetts divorce
The money picture for a divorce in Massachusetts: how property gets divided, what Massachusetts calls spousal support and how it is decided, whether one spouse can be made to pay the other’s legal fees while the case is running, and — the part nobody publishes — whether Massachusetts’s own income tax follows the federal rule on alimony.
See a different stateMassachusetts
Every claim is traced to Massachusetts’s own statute, court rule or revenue department, quoted where the wording carries the meaning. Where we could not verify something, the page says so instead of filling the space. Information, not legal advice — and tax questions in particular need a professional in your state. Corrections: thecusp.app/corrections.
The short version6 points · tap one to jump to it
- Does Massachusetts follow the federal alimony rule? — Since 2019, federal law has treated alimony as not deductible by the payer and not taxable to the recipient, for any instrument executed after 31 December 2018.
- How property is divided — Massachusetts is an equitable distribution state.
- Alimony — Massachusetts calls it alimony.
- Who pays for the lawyers — A fee award that only arrives at final judgment is close to worthless to someone who could not afford a lawyer during the case.
- The thing worth knowing about Massachusetts
- What we could not verify
In this subject 8
Does Massachusetts follow the federal alimony rule?
The short version6 points · tap one to jump to it
- Does Massachusetts follow the federal alimony rule? — Since 2019, federal law has treated alimony as not deductible by the payer and not taxable to the recipient, for any instrument executed after 31 December 2018.
- How property is divided — Massachusetts is an equitable distribution state.
- Alimony — Massachusetts calls it alimony.
- Who pays for the lawyers — A fee award that only arrives at final judgment is close to worthless to someone who could not afford a lawyer during the case.
- The thing worth knowing about Massachusetts
- What we could not verify
In this subject 8
Since 2019, federal law has treated alimony as not deductible by the payer and not taxable to the recipient, for any instrument executed after 31 December 2018. Most people assume every state followed. Most did. Not all.
Massachusetts defines ‘federal gross income’ by reference to a fixed IRC conformity date that the legislature periodically updates (currently ‘the Internal Revenue Code…as amended on January 1, 2024’, per St. 2024, c. 140, §§ 251, 264). Because IRC §§ 71 and 215 (the pre-TCJA alimony inclusion/deduction provisions) were already repealed by the time of that January 1, 2024 reference date, the Code that Massachusetts imports for gross-income purposes no longer contains the pre-TCJA alimony rule, so for instruments executed after Dec. 31, 2018 Massachusetts follows the post-TCJA federal treatment (non-deductible to payer, non-taxable to recipient).
So the federal answer is your answer for tax years beginning on or after 1 January 2022: post-2018 instruments, no deduction and no inclusion, on either return. For tax years 2019, 2020 and 2021 it was not. See the Department’s own answer below.
We asked, and on 1 October 2026 the Rulings and Regulations Bureau replied by information letter. It confirmed the answer we had reached and it corrected the period that answer covers, which we had never stated.
The Department points to TIR 23-5, Chapter 62 Conformity to Select Provisions of the 2022 Internal Revenue Code. Its words: “Massachusetts conforms to the federal tax law treatment of alimony for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2022. For prior tax years, Massachusetts conformed to the federal treatment of alimony under the Internal Revenue Code in effect January 1, 2005.”
That 2005 Code still contained the pre-TCJA alimony provisions. So for Massachusetts tax years 2019, 2020 and 2021, alimony paid under an instrument executed after 31 December 2018 was deductible by the payer and includible by the recipient on the Massachusetts return — while being neither of those things on the federal return for the same year. Massachusetts and the IRS disagreed for three tax years, and then stopped disagreeing.
There is a second limb we did not have. The 2022 conformity reaches not only instruments executed after 31 December 2018, but also an instrument executed before 2019 that was modified after 2018 to say expressly that the payments are not deductible by the payer or includible by the recipient. An older order can therefore be moved onto the federal rule deliberately, but only if the modification says so.
What we had wrong. Our sentence carried no effective date. It read as though the federal rule had applied in Massachusetts from 2019, and for three tax years it had not. The conclusion was right for today and incomplete for the past, which is its own kind of wrong on a page someone might read while amending an older return. It is on our corrections page with the date.
We are citing the Technical Information Release rather than the letter, because that is what the Department pointed us at and because the letter says what it is: an information letter under 830 CMR 62C.3.1, general guidance rather than a ruling binding on the Department. The attorney who signed it is not named here, which is our standing rule for everyone who answers us from a state agency.
Fifteen other revenue departments have answered this question — what fifteen states told us. This is the second that has moved something we published.
Department source: Mass. DOR TIR 23-5, Chapter 62 Conformity to Select Provisions of the 2022 Internal Revenue Code · source · confirmed by information letter from the Rulings and Regulations Bureau, 1 October 2026
Source: M.G.L. c. 62, § 1(c) (definition of ‘Code’), as amended by St. 2024, c. 140, §§ 251, 264 · source
Conformity: static: January 1, 2024 for Chapter 62 generally; the alimony change took effect for tax years beginning on or after 1 January 2022 (TIR 23-5). January 1, 2005 (periodically updated by the Legislature; post-dates the TCJA’s repeal of IRC §§71/215, so alimony currently conforms to federal treatment)
Nationally: 37 states follow the federal rule, 9 have no income tax, and 4 are decoupled. The full fifty-state table and what each decoupled state does differently.
How property is divided
Massachusetts is an equitable distribution state. That means the court divides marital property fairly, which is not a synonym for equally. What counts as marital rather than separate property is frequently the whole argument.
the court…shall consider the length of the marriage…age, health, station, occupation, amount and sources of income, vocational skills, employability, estate, liabilities and needs of each of the parties
Source: M.G.L. c. 208, § 34
Alimony
Massachusetts calls it alimony. Using the state’s own word matters when you are searching for forms or reading a statute.
hybrid
the amount of alimony should generally not exceed the recipient’s need or 30 to 35 per cent of the difference between the parties’ gross incomes established at the time of the order
Source: M.G.L. c. 208, §§ 48-55 (Alimony Reform Act of 2011), particularly §§ 49 and 53
Who pays for the lawyers
the court may, in its discretion, award costs and expenses, or either, to either party, whether or not the marital relation has terminated
Source: M.G.L. c. 208, § 38
The court may require either party to pay into court for the use of the other party during the pendency of the action an amount to enable him to maintain or defend the action, and to pay to him alimony during the pendency of the action.
A fee award that only arrives at final judgment is close to worthless to someone who could not afford a lawyer during the case. By then it is over. An interim award is what stops a wealthier spouse winning by attrition.
If you are the lower earner, this is the single most actionable thing on this page. Ask at the first meeting, in these words: “Can we move for an interim award of attorney fees now?” Do not let “we will deal with fees at the end” pass unexamined.
Separately, if custody is contested you may be ordered to pay for a guardian ad litem or a custody evaluator, and the court decides how to split that. What that costs in Massachusetts, and who bears it.
The thing worth knowing about Massachusetts
The Alimony Reform Act of 2011 (M.G.L. c. 208, §§ 48-55) ties the maximum duration of ‘general term alimony’ directly to marriage length: for marriages of 20 years or less, alimony is capped, absent written findings justifying deviation, at 50% of the marriage’s length in months for marriages of 5 years or less, 60% for marriages over 5 up to 10 years, 70% for marriages over 10 up to 15 years, and 80% for marriages over 15 up to 20 years; for marriages over 20 years, alimony may run indefinitely (§ 49(b)-(c)).
What we could not verify
For Massachusetts, we could not confirm the following from a primary source. We would rather print the gap than fill it:
- the child support model
If you practice in Massachusetts and can point us at the right provision, tell us. Corrections are published with the date, what changed, and how long the error was live.