If you are going through divorce, you might be wondering about whether you may be able to receive alimony or be required to pay it. The terms alimony and spousal support are often used interchangeably, but they have very different meanings and applications in Texas. Understanding these fundamental differences can help you protect your rights during the divorce process.
What Is Alimony?
Alimony is a term often used to describe money that one spouse gives to another spouse after a divorce when the incomes of the spouses are very different. Historically, alimony was awarded in cases in which a woman sacrificed her own career ambitions to support her husband’s. Rather than being dependent on the state for her basic support, family courts would order the husband to pay alimony.
Alimony is not provided for as a right under Texas divorce laws. However, spouses can agree to the payment of alimony and include it in their divorce decree. However, alimony is not enforceable by a family court order but only by contract law, so if the spouse who is supposed to pay it doesn’t, the other spouse would only be able to seek redress by filing a breach of contract claim against the spouse.
What Is Spousal Maintenance?
While alimony is not provided for under Texas family law, spousal maintenance is. Texas family law defines spousal maintenance as an award in a divorce case of periodic payments from the future income of one spouse for the support of the other spouse. The obligee is the person who receives payments under the terms of the spousal support order, while the obligor is the person required to make the payments.
To be eligible to receive spousal maintenance, an obligee must specifically request it. They must lack sufficient property to provide for their reasonable needs and meet one of the following requirements:
- The obligor was convicted of or received deferred adjudication for an offense that is an act of family violence that they committed during the marriage against the obligee or their child within two years before filing for divorce or while the divorce case is pending.
- The obligee is unable to earn sufficient income to provide for their minimum reasonable needs because of an incapacitating physical or mental disability.
- The obligee has been married for at least ten years and lacks the ability to earn sufficient income to provide for their minimum reasonable needs.
- The obligee is the custodian of a child of the marriage who requires substantial care and personal supervision due to a physical or mental disability that prevents them from earning sufficient income to provide for their minimum reasonable needs.
Alternatively, the spouses could agree to the payment of spousal support. If the obligee is a sponsored immigrant, they could seek to enforce the Affidavit of Support executed by the other spouse until they become a citizen or earn 40 credits of work history.
What Factors Do Courts Consider When Ordering Spousal Maintenance?
If the court decides the obligee is eligible for spousal support, it considers various factors to determine the type of spousal maintenance to award, the amount, the duration, and manner of payment, including:
- Each spouse’s ability to provide for their own minimum reasonable needs independently, considering the spouse’s financial resources at the time of divorce
- The spouses’ education and employment skills, the time necessary to acquire sufficient education or training for the obligee to earn sufficient income, and the availability and practicality of that education and training
- The length of the marriage
- The obligee’s age, employment history, earning ability, and physical and emotional condition
- The effect of each spouse’s ability to provide for their own minimum reasonable needs while paying child support or maintenance payments
- Acts by either spouse resulting in excessive spending or destruction, concealment, or fraudulent disposal of community property
- The contribution of one spouse to the education, training, or increased earning power of the other spouse
- The spouses’ separate property
- The contribution of one spouse as a homemaker
- Marital misconduct during the marriage
- Any history of family violence
Under Tex. Fam. Code § 8.053, there is a presumption that spousal support is not warranted unless the obligee has exercised diligence in earning sufficient income or developing the skills necessary to provide for their basic needs while the divorce case is pending.
Texas Laws on Spousal Maintenance and Alimony
In addition to the factors considered above, family courts must follow additional rules for spousal maintenance. For example, the obligor cannot be ordered to pay more than $5,000 or 20% of their average monthly gross income, whichever is less. The term for spousal support is based on the length of the marriage, up to the following maximum terms:
- Five years for marriages lasting up to ten years when the obligor was convicted of family violence
- Five years for marriages lasting between ten and twenty years
- Seven years for marriages lasting between twenty and thirty years
- Ten years for marriages lasting more than thirty years
Because alimony is decided between the parties, there is no eligibility requirement, cap, or time limit related to its payment.
Contact the Austin Divorce Lawyers at the Kazen Family Law & Divorce Lawyers To Get Legal Assistance Today
If you would like more information about spousal maintenance or alimony in Austin, Kazen Family Law & Divorce Lawyers can discuss your particular situation during a confidential consultation. Contact us today and let our Austin family law lawyers help you.
To learn more and get the help you deserve, contact our legal team at the Kazen Family Law & Divorce Lawyers and schedule your consultation today if you need help with a divorce, child custody case, property division, or any other family law matter.
We serve all through Travis County and its surrounding areas in Texas. Or visit our family law firm in Austin, TX today at:
Kazen Family Law & Divorce Lawyers
609 W 9th St Suite 101, Austin, TX 78701
(512) 236-1315