Alimony Substitution Trust

Definition of "Alimony substitution trust"

Agreement in which spouse X (the spouse who is mandated by the court to make alimony and/or child support payments to spouse Y) must put assets (the principal) in a trust, from which the payments are made to spouse Y. Under this trust, the payments made from the income generated by the principal is taxable income to spouse Y, but any sums paid from the corpus of the principal is not taxable income to spouse Y. Spouse X does not receive a tax deduction for payments made from the trust's corpus of principal, nor does spouse X pay income taxes on the income generated by the principal in the trust.