I got divorced in North Carolina, where the divorce laws are a little different. In North Carolina, you have to live separate and apart for one year before you can get divorced. We separated from January 1, 2007 to January 1, 2008 and were divorced in March 2009. I paid my ex-wife $1,320 per month in alimony from January 2008 until June 2009. However, when we filed our 2008 tax returns, we still had to file them as "married" because by law we were still married. Therefore, I was not able to claim the alimony payments made in 2008 that totaled $15,840. Can I claim them on my tax return this year since we are now divorced, along with the alimony I paid from January 2009 - June 2009? Am I correct in calculating that I paid 18 months of alimony at $1320 per month totaling $23,760?