Does Texas Have Alimony? Eligibility, Limits, and Duration

Texas does have alimony, though state law calls it spousal maintenance and makes it harder to get than in most other states. Under Chapter 8 of the Texas Family Code, courts start from the assumption that maintenance is not needed, and the spouse asking for it must clear specific eligibility hurdles before a judge will order any payments. When a court does order maintenance, the amount is capped at the lesser of $5,000 per month or 20 percent of the paying spouse’s gross income, and payments cannot last more than 10 years. Because the statutory limits are so tight, many divorcing couples negotiate private agreements, known as contractual alimony, that fall outside those ceilings.

Who Qualifies for Court-Ordered Maintenance

Every request begins with the same threshold. The spouse asking for support must show that, after the divorce, they will not have enough property, including the separate property they already own, to meet their minimum reasonable needs.¹ Clearing that threshold alone is not enough. The requesting spouse also has to fit into one of four categories:

Family violence. The other spouse was convicted of or received deferred adjudication for a family violence offense against the requesting spouse or their child, and the offense occurred within two years before the divorce was filed or while the case was pending.¹
Disability. The requesting spouse has a physical or mental disability that prevents them from earning enough to meet their minimum reasonable needs.
Long marriage. The spouses were married at least 10 years, and the requesting spouse cannot earn enough income to be self-supporting.
Caring for a disabled child. The requesting spouse is the primary caretaker of a child of the marriage with a physical or mental disability that requires substantial care and supervision, and that role prevents them from earning adequate income.¹

The long-marriage category carries an extra layer. There is a rebuttable presumption that maintenance is not warranted unless the requesting spouse has been diligent in trying to earn enough income or developing the skills to do so during the separation and while the divorce has been pending.² A spouse who sat idle during a long separation without looking for work or pursuing training faces an uphill fight. The presumption can be overcome with evidence, but the burden sits squarely on the person asking for support.

How Much a Court Can Order and for How Long

Monthly payments are capped at the lesser of $5,000 or 20 percent of the paying spouse’s average gross monthly income.³ For a payer earning $20,000 a month, the 20 percent figure of $4,000 controls because it falls below $5,000. For a payer earning $30,000 a month, the $5,000 cap controls because 20 percent would be $6,000. Gross income for this calculation includes wages, salary, interest, dividends, royalties, net rental income, self-employment earnings, and other income actually received, such as retirement benefits, severance pay, trust distributions, and capital gains.

Duration is also capped, based on how the recipient qualified and how long the marriage lasted. The court must order the shortest period that allows the recipient to earn enough to meet their minimum reasonable needs.⁴

Family violence qualifier, marriage of any length: up to 5 years.
Marriage of 10 to 20 years: up to 5 years.
Marriage of 20 to 30 years: up to 7 years.
Marriage of 30 years or more: up to 10 years.⁴

Two exceptions allow indefinite payments. If the recipient qualifies because of a personal disability or because they care for a disabled child of the marriage, the court can order maintenance to continue as long as the qualifying condition lasts.⁴ Either party can ask the court to review periodically whether the disability still prevents self-support, so these orders are not truly permanent.

What Factors the Judge Weighs

Within those caps, the judge has discretion over the exact amount and duration. The two anchors are what the requesting spouse reasonably needs and what the other spouse can actually afford to pay.⁵ From there, the statute lists additional factors:

Each spouse’s financial resources after the property division, and whether the requesting spouse needs time for education or job training.
The standard of living during the marriage.
The length of the marriage.
The age, employment history, earning ability, and physical and emotional condition of the requesting spouse.
Contributions by one spouse to the other’s education, training, or increased earning power.
Any history of family violence.
Whether either spouse wasted community assets through things like excessive spending, concealment, or fraud.⁵

The statute also includes a catch-all permitting the court to consider any other factor it deems just and equitable, which gives judges room to handle unusual situations that do not fit the listed categories.

Contractual Alimony: Negotiating Outside the Caps

Because the statutory limits are so restrictive, many couples negotiate a private agreement that Texas law calls contractual alimony. These agreements can set payments higher than $5,000 a month, run longer than 10 years, or include terms a judge could never impose in a contested hearing. For higher-income divorces, this is the workaround of choice.

How the agreement is structured controls how it can be enforced. If the terms fall within what the court could have ordered on its own and the court approves them, the recipient can enforce the agreement through contempt proceedings, just like a court-ordered award.⁶ Contempt matters because it carries the threat of jail time, which creates real leverage.

For any portion of the agreement that exceeds the statutory limits, contempt is off the table. The court cannot jail someone for failing to pay an amount larger than what the court could have ordered itself.⁶ The recipient’s only remedy for the excess portion is a breach-of-contract lawsuit, which produces a money judgment rather than the threat of incarceration. Income withholding through the employer is also unavailable for the contractual portion. Anyone signing a generous contractual alimony deal should understand this enforcement gap before relying on the payments.

When Payments End

Spousal maintenance terminates automatically when either the payer or the recipient dies.⁷ It also ends if the recipient remarries. No court filing is needed for these events to cut off future payments, though any amount that accrued before termination is still owed.

Cohabitation also ends the obligation, but only after a court hearing. The paying spouse must prove the recipient is living with another person in a dating or romantic relationship, in a permanent residence, on a continuing basis.⁷ All three elements matter. A recipient who occasionally stays with a partner but keeps a separate home may not meet the standard; a recipient who has moved in and shares expenses on an ongoing basis is squarely within it.

Modifying an Existing Order

Either spouse can ask the original court to modify a maintenance order by showing a material and substantial change in circumstances that happened after the order was entered.⁶ A job loss, a completed degree followed by employment, or a significant health change could all qualify.

Two limits are worth knowing. First, a modification can only reduce the payment or shorten the remaining duration. The court cannot raise the amount above the original figure or extend the end date.⁶ Second, if a spouse becomes disabled or loses a job after the divorce is final and no maintenance order was ever entered, those later hardships are not grounds for starting a new obligation. The statute closes that door. Anyone who thinks they might need maintenance has to pursue it during the divorce itself.

How Orders Are Enforced

A court-ordered maintenance award can be enforced through contempt, which is the strongest collection tool in family law. If the payer falls behind, the recipient can file a motion to enforce, and the court can hold the payer in contempt and order jail time.⁶ The court can also enter a money judgment for arrears and collect through income withholding and other debt tools.

The paying spouse has an affirmative defense to contempt, but it is narrow. The payer must show they lacked the ability to pay, had no property they could sell or pledge, tried unsuccessfully to borrow the money, and knew of no other legal source of funds. All four elements must be proven. Simply saying “I can’t afford it” without documenting real efforts will not satisfy a judge.

Federal Tax Treatment

For any divorce or separation agreement finalized after December 31, 2018, spousal maintenance carries no federal tax consequences. The payer cannot deduct the payments, and the recipient does not report them as income.⁸ The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act repealed the alimony deduction permanently, with no sunset.

This shift changes settlement math. Before the repeal, a high-earning payer in a top bracket effectively paid at a discount because the deduction offset part of the cost. Now the full payment comes out of after-tax dollars. Recipients keep every dollar without owing federal tax on it. If your divorce was finalized before January 1, 2019, the old rules still apply, meaning the payer deducts and the recipient reports the income. Modifying a pre-2019 agreement can trigger the new rules, and that choice is irreversible, so proceed carefully.⁹

Two Other Rules Worth Knowing

Bankruptcy does not wipe out a maintenance obligation. Federal law excludes domestic support obligations from discharge, so a payer cannot escape past-due or future payments by filing Chapter 7.¹⁰ A bankruptcy filing can create delays, but the obligation itself survives.

The 10-year marriage mark also matters outside of Texas law. A divorced spouse married at least 10 years may qualify for Social Security benefits based on the ex-spouse’s earnings record, as long as the divorced spouse is at least 62 and currently unmarried.¹¹ This benefit does not reduce what the ex-spouse receives. For a spouse with limited work history, the timing of a divorce near the 10-year mark can have consequences well beyond maintenance.

1
State of Texas. Texas Family Code 8.051 – Eligibility for Maintenance
2
State of Texas. Texas Family Code 8.053 – Presumption
3
State of Texas. Texas Family Code 8.055 – Amount of Maintenance
4
State of Texas. Texas Family Code 8.054 – Duration of Maintenance Order
5
State of Texas. Texas Family Code 8.052 – Factors for Determining Maintenance
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State of Texas. Texas Family Code Chapter 8 – Maintenance
7
State of Texas. Texas Family Code 8.056 – Termination
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 215 – Alimony, Etc., Payments (Repealed)
9
Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 452, Alimony and Separate Maintenance
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 523 – Exceptions to Discharge
11
Social Security Administration. Who Can Get Family Benefits