Barrett v. United States

WISDOM, Circuit Judge:

The plaintiffs/appellants bring this appeal challenging the district court’s denial of their request to deduct alimony payments from their taxable income. We AFFIRM the judgment of the district court with respect to its overall categorization of the alimony payments as non-deductible and REVERSE its decision denying deductions equal to the accrued alimony arrearages.

I

Pat Barrett Jr. (Pat), the plaintiff/appellant, 1 and Helen Barrett (Helen) were divorced in November 1984. The judgment of divorce (1984 Judgment) provided that the parties had reached a proper settlement…