We have still not seen a copy of the Senate bill although PBS Newshour reports that the final version adopted by the Senate was not circulated in the Senate until late Friday evening and about 5 hours before the vote. However, it appears that the Senate bill does not change existing alimony rules. As noted on Listserve last month, the House version does abandon alimony as a deduction effective January 1, 2018. If you are negotiating an alimony provision you need to be carefully following this issue on behalf of clients. The one thing which all reports appear to confirm is that tax reform is a freight train that will not be stopped. The House is scheduled to go out of session on December 14. The Senate one day later. The House needs to pass a bill in that time and the Senate and House need to decide on a “common” bill for joint passage and transmission to the President. The House is circulating a bill that would forestall next week’s government shutdown until December 22, 2017, which would signal that they plan to extend their session. But, suffice to say, the next ten days should provide plenty of excitement.
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