As we are reading and watching the news over the past few days, Congress has approved and the president signed into law H.R. 1 of the 115th U.S. Congress, the much-debated tax bill set to reshape the federal tax system. We've read about the sweeping changes being made with pass through entities, the SALT deduction and the estate tax. And as we await the implementation of the new law and the affect it will have on everyday life, we will learn the details contained in the bill's 400-plus pages. One of those details will substantially affect alimony recipients and payors in the future: Effective Jan. 1, 2019, alimony will no longer be taxable income to those who receive it or tax deductible for those who pay for it.

The tax bill, specifically Section 1309, repeals the tax deduction available to tax payors for alimony payments. For those who are paying alimony presently, the section is not retroactive. It provides that this repeal will effect those who have a divorce or separation instrument (as defined by section 71(b)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986) executed after Dec. 31, 2018. However, for those who get divorced after this date, depending on your circumstances, this legislation will be a game changer.

As alimony payors typically are in higher tax brackets than alimony recipients, the present law allowed parties to more easily resolve divorces by allowing alimony to be structured tax efficiently and soften the blow of what can be a very high number paid for a very long time. With this new law, alimony recipients will no longer report alimony as taxable income, akin to child support.

There is a growing discussion among law and tax professionals that such a change will make divorce matters more litigious and difficult to resolve by removing a key tool in negotiating cases with tax planning. With this tool now gone going forward, only time will tell if this tax change really will make divorce matters involving alimony issues more difficult to resolve. It is important to discuss the pros and cons of this change and what it may mean to an individual's situation with an attorney or tax professional experienced in these areas.

There is also growing discussion throughout Florida about whether this change may jump-start discussion on alimony reform once again, a topic which has been debated for several years in Tallahassee and subject of two recent bills that were both vetoed by Gov. Rick Scott. As with all the provisions in this sweeping piece of legislation from Washington, only time will tell how it will affect our everyday life and the consequences of those changes.

Henny L. Shomar and Douglas H. Reynolds are directors at Tripp Scott in Fort Lauderdale. Shomar practices in the areas of commercial and complex business litigation, marital and family law, probate litigation and creditor's rights. Reynolds is board certified in business litigation and marital and family law.