The divorce process often involves the redistribution of wealth and resources from one spouse to the other. One way this sometimes takes place is through alimony, often called spousal support or spousal maintenance. Alimony agreements are binding plans for interspousal financial assistance that can come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Read ahead to learn about how alimony works. We’ll cover everything from how alimony is pursued and decided to how it is enforced.
How Does Alimony Work in a Divorce?
Laws governing alimony vary between states. Most share similar overarching rules about how individuals seek and the courts address alimony. Spousal support is usually part of a divorce case, but spouses who are still married but separated can also seek spousal support in most states.
What is the Process for Getting Alimony?
For alimony to be ordered, one or both spouses must request it from the court. Usually, this is indicated in the initial filing document for divorce, such as a petition for divorce or petition for dissolution form. Alimony can be agreed upon in a settlement or through mediation or the couple can take the issue to trial where the judge will decide.
Alimony is usually decided after issues of child custody, child support and property division have been settled or determined. Temporary alimony may also be granted early in divorce proceedings to provide interim support for the non-moneyed spouse until the final divorce ruling is issued.
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How Long Does Alimony Last?
Alimony payments may be structured to last for a set amount of time or until a specific milestone is reached. It’s common for a judge to order alimony payments for one-third or half the length of time that the marriage lasted. In cases in which the recipient spouse is elderly or disabled, alimony could last for that spouse’s lifetime. Alimony could also be ordered as a one-time lump sum.
Some states set maximum durations for alimony based on factors like the length of the marriage, while others give judges more discretion. Absent any other agreements, alimony terminates with the remarriage of the recipient or the death of either party. Alimony can be modified by the court to address changes in circumstances long after a divorce has occurred, such as the recipient entering a financially supportive relationship with another person.
What Are the Different Types of Alimony?
Most states break down alimony into at least a few different types, each with its own intended purpose and duration. While states define these differently, there is significant overlap in how they are often categorized. Common among states is durational alimony, structured by a specific length of time for which support is deemed necessary. Also common is rehabilitative alimony, where payments are provided to allow the recipient to obtain education, training or work experience so they can become self-supporting.
Many states permit permanent alimony intended for spouses who are disabled, elderly or chronically ill. On the opposite end of the spectrum, many also delineate short-term or transitional forms of alimony that support only very limited needs during or immediately following a divorce.
Also available in some states is reimbursement alimony, which compensates for specific contributions a spouse made to their marriage (often, to the other spouse’s education or growth of a business or professional practice), potentially even through a one-time alimony payment.
Is Alimony Taxable?
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 changed how alimony is treated by tax law. For divorces finalized in 2019 and after, alimony payments are no longer tax deductible for the paying party and no longer considered taxable income for the recipient. This also affects some divorces that precede 2019 but were modified in 2019 or later.
What Is Alimony Based on?
Alimony is typically considered when one party would otherwise suffer a major drop in their standard of living after divorce. This includes cases where one ex-spouse is unable to be financially self-sufficient immediately. Even if both spouses can be self-sufficient, if one is in a better financial position after the marriage, alimony levels the playing field to some extent.
At its core, alimony is meant to compensate for one spouse’s lower net worth or earning potential created by the circumstances of the marriage. In many marriages one spouse takes on more responsibility for things like child care and homemaking while the other pursues a career and earns more income.
There are other ways, too, that a spouse might contribute to a marriage besides providing income, such as supporting a spouse’s education or helping with a family business without pay. Alimony can make up for the financial losses one spouse suffered as a result of these contributions.
For example, if one spouse became a stay-at-home parent during a marriage, alimony gives them the ability to pursue education or other work opportunities to increase their employment credentials and earning potential. Alimony is based on the idea that the higher-earning spouse in this scenario personally benefits from the stay-at-home parent’s efforts and may remain economically advantaged by the situation long after the marriage has ended.
A few states take into account fault when deciding alimony. For example, if adultery is used as the grounds for the divorce, the adultery can be considered as a factor in setting the amount of alimony. This is called punitive alimony.
How Are Alimony Amounts Decided?
Absent an agreement between divorcing spouses, a judge evaluates the parties’ financial situations to determine the amount of alimony.
Criteria for Determining Alimony
The criteria for determining the amount of alimony varies somewhat between states, but these are some of the most common factors that courts will consider:
- One party’s need for alimony and the other’s ability to pay
- The standard of living established during the marriage
- Earning capacities of each party and available sources of income
- Age, health and emotional condition of each party
- Duration of the marriage
- The time each party would require to prepare for and find appropriate employment if they weren’t employed during the marriage
- Contributions to the marriage, including the value of aiding a spouse’s career-building and the value of services rendered in homemaking, childcare and child education
- Ongoing responsibilities for children of the marriage
Courts have some discretion in how much to value to place on each factor for determining alimony.
How Is Alimony Calculated?
In many states, formulas exist to assist the court with calculating alimony figures. These often compare the monthly incomes of the spouses and award a certain percentage of the difference to the lower-earning spouse. Some states impose guidelines like these only for divorces in which the parties fall under a certain income threshold.
Other states give considerably more leeway to judges, who may act on judicial precedent but are still entitled to determine the amount of alimony themselves. Alimony generally does not leave the paying spouse with less net income than the recipient.
Enforcing an Alimony Award
While alimony is legally binding, it can be harder to enforce than other court orders such as child support. Still, there is recourse recipients can take if they aren’t receiving what has been ordered by the court. It’s recommended to talk to a lawyer before pursuing legal action to enforce alimony. There are several methods for pursuing unpaid alimony.
Contempt of Court
One response is to return to court for enforcement through contempt of court proceedings. Here, if the recipient can prove an ex-spouse’s noncompliance, the court may issue a judgment for the amount due and allow income to accrue. In rare situations of complete and bold noncompliance the court can also jail the non-paying spouse for contempt of court.
Income Withholding
The court can issue an order directing the paying spouse’s employer to divert pay directly to the recipient spouse.
Writ of Execution
The court may order a writ of execution which allows the recipient spouse to seize the non-paying spouse’s property (including bank accounts) to fulfill the debts.
Mediation
While it’s not a surefire way to compel a delinquent payer, a return to mediation provides some of the same benefits to spouses in post-divorce conflict as it does during the divorce process. In cases where the payer may be genuinely struggling to provide support, reevaluating the terms of alimony can be beneficial to both parties.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is there a difference between alimony and spousal support?
The two terms mean the same thing, but spousal support has seen growing use in recent decades. While alimony is gender neutral by definition, states allowed alimony only from husband to wife until about 1980. The terms spousal support or spousal maintenance sidestep any unnecessary correlation with gender, acknowledging marriages where the wife is the highest earner and for same-sex marriages.
What’s the difference between property division and alimony?
Property division is a one-time event in almost all divorces which resolves ownership of shared assets and liabilities. Alimony is also decided during the divorce process and there’s some overlap in the factors considered to determine each.
Alimony can be and most often is an ongoing obligation that can last many years; it intends to support the general living expenses of one spouse, while property division doesn’t share this goal.
Do I have to pay child support if I pay alimony?
Child support and alimony are determined separately—so yes, child support may still be required for parties ordered to pay alimony. Alimony is for one ex-spouse’s general living expenses, and while this may be influenced by the presence of minor or dependent children, children are not the main factor.
Conversely, child support is intended for a separate and more specific set of costs related only to raising children. It may be granted automatically by a judge regardless of any request by one party for alimony.
How much is a wife entitled to in a divorce?
How much alimony a spouse of either gender may be entitled to depends on the extent of familial contributions they made at the expense of their own income or earning potential and the overall financial situations of the parties.
