Florida Divorce Rules: Grounds, Property, Alimony, and Taxes

Florida divorce rules require at least one spouse to have lived in the state for six months before filing, treat the end of a marriage as a no-fault “dissolution,” split marital property on an equitable basis, and (since July 2023) cap alimony awards based on how long the marriage lasted. A judge cannot sign the final judgment until both spouses have exchanged financial disclosures, and when minor children are involved, both parents must file a parenting plan and complete a state-approved parenting course.

Who Can File and On What Grounds

At least one spouse must have lived in Florida for six months before the petition is filed.¹ A Florida driver’s license, voter registration card, or witness testimony can establish residency.

Only two grounds exist. Nearly every case uses the first: the marriage is “irretrievably broken.” The second, rarely used, is that one spouse has been legally declared mentally incapacitated for at least three years.² Neither requires proof that anyone cheated, abandoned the home, or was otherwise at fault.

How the Case Moves Through Court

The spouse who starts the case (the petitioner) files a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage with the clerk of the circuit court. Filing fees generally run around $408 to $409 depending on the county.³ A request to change back to a former name can go in the same petition.⁴

The other spouse must be formally notified through service of process, usually by a process server or sheriff’s deputy. Once served, the respondent has 20 days to file a written answer.⁵ Missing that deadline can lead to a default, meaning the judge may grant the petition without the respondent’s input.

A separate 20-day cooling-off period runs from the date of filing before a judge can sign the final judgment. A judge can shorten it only if waiting would cause an injustice.⁶ Contested cases typically run much longer than 20 days, so the minimum rarely drives the timeline.

Couples who agree on everything can use a faster track called simplified dissolution. Both spouses must agree the marriage is irretrievably broken, have no minor or dependent children (and the wife cannot be pregnant), have already divided all assets and debts, and complete the required financial disclosures. If every item is met, the couple can file jointly and usually finish in a single court appearance.

What You Have to Disclose

Both spouses must exchange detailed financial information under Florida Family Law Rule of Procedure 12.285. Mandatory disclosure includes federal and state tax returns for the past three years, pay stubs for the three months before the financial affidavit is served, three months of checking account statements, and twelve months of statements for savings, money market, and other accounts.⁷

Each spouse also files a sworn Financial Affidavit covering income, expenses, assets, and debts. If your gross income is under $50,000 a year, you file the short form (Form 12.902(b)). At $50,000 or more, you file the long form (Form 12.902(c)), which asks for more granular detail.⁸ Judges rely heavily on these affidavits when dividing property and setting support, so errors or omissions carry real cost.

How Property Gets Divided

Florida uses equitable distribution. The court starts from the assumption that everything acquired during the marriage (real estate, bank accounts, retirement funds, vehicles) should be split equally. Non-marital property, meaning assets one spouse owned before the wedding or received individually as a gift or inheritance, generally stays with that spouse.⁹

Equal is a starting point, not a guarantee. A court can shift to an unequal split based on factors including:

Each spouse’s financial and non-financial contributions, including homemaking and raising children.
The economic circumstances of each spouse going forward.
The length of the marriage, with longer marriages generally supporting closer-to-equal splits.
Whether one spouse gave up educational or career opportunities for the marriage.
Whether a dependent child’s best interests favor one parent staying in the marital home.
Whether either spouse intentionally wasted marital assets within two years before filing or after filing.

That last factor is where cases turn contentious. Running up credit cards, draining accounts, or destroying property to spite the other spouse can result in the court crediting those losses back to the offending party’s share.⁹

How Alimony Works After the 2023 Reform

Florida eliminated permanent alimony effective July 1, 2023. Courts can now award only three forms of support, and only after finding that one spouse has a genuine need and the other has the ability to pay.¹⁰

Bridge-the-gap alimony covers identifiable near-term expenses for the transition to single life. It cannot last longer than two years and cannot be modified once awarded.
Rehabilitative alimony supports a specific plan to gain the education, training, or work experience needed to become self-sufficient. It cannot exceed five years.
Durational alimony provides support for a set period when the other forms are not appropriate.

Marriage length is the central variable. A short-term marriage is fewer than 10 years, a moderate-term marriage is 10 to 20 years, and a long-term marriage is 20 years or more, measured from the wedding date to the date the petition is filed.¹⁰

Durational alimony is capped at 50 percent of the length of a short-term marriage, 60 percent of a moderate-term marriage, and 75 percent of a long-term marriage. A separate income cap limits the monthly award to 35 percent of the difference between the two spouses’ net incomes, or the receiving spouse’s reasonable need, whichever is less.¹⁰

The court can consider adultery by either spouse, and any economic impact it had on the marriage, when setting the amount.¹⁰ A paying spouse who reaches normal Social Security retirement age can petition to reduce or end alimony, and can file up to six months before actually retiring.

Rules When Children Are Involved

Both parents must file a Parenting Plan setting out how daily responsibilities will be shared. Florida uses the term “time-sharing” rather than custody or visitation. The plan must detail the schedule showing when the child lives with each parent, how decisions about healthcare and education will be made, and how the parents will communicate about the child.¹¹

Child support follows a guidelines formula. The court combines both parents’ monthly net incomes, then looks up the baseline support amount on a statutory schedule set by the number of children.¹² Each parent’s share is proportional to their percentage of the combined income.

Overnight stays shape the result. When each parent has a substantial number of overnights, the court multiplies the base obligation by 1.5, then credits each parent based on the percentage of nights the child spends with the other. Health insurance premiums and childcare costs are added on top of the base calculation.¹²

Parent Education Course

Both parents must complete a state-approved Parent Education and Family Stabilization Course that runs at least four hours. The petitioner must finish within 45 days of filing; the respondent within 45 days of being served. No final judgment issues without proof of completion.¹³ Fees typically range from about $20 to $50, and most approved providers offer the course online. A parent who skips the requirement can be held in contempt.

Court-Ordered Mediation

Florida courts routinely order mediation before a contested case can go to trial. For parenting disputes, the court must refer the case to mediation whenever it finds disagreement over time-sharing or parental responsibility, unless a history of domestic violence would compromise the process.¹⁴ Mediation typically covers property and alimony disputes as well. Mediator hourly rates typically run $125 to $500, split between the spouses unless the court orders otherwise. If mediation fails, the case moves to trial.

Tax and Benefit Rules That Follow the Divorce

Alimony Is No Longer Deductible

For any divorce or separation agreement finalized after December 31, 2018, alimony is not deductible by the payer and not counted as income to the recipient.¹⁵ Pre-2019 agreements keep the old rules (payer deducts, recipient reports) unless a later modification adopts the new treatment.

Property Transfers Between Spouses

Transferring assets to a spouse or former spouse as part of a divorce settlement generally produces no taxable gain or loss at the time of transfer. The receiving spouse takes over the original owner’s tax basis, so built-in gain is deferred until the asset is sold.¹⁶ The transfer must happen within one year of the end of the marriage or be directly related to the divorce. The rule does not apply if the ex-spouse is a nonresident alien.

Two assets with the same sticker price are not necessarily equal after tax. $200,000 in a brokerage account with a $50,000 cost basis carries $150,000 of built-in gain whenever it is sold. $200,000 in cash carries none. Splitting assets without pricing in the embedded tax basis is a common and expensive mistake.

Selling the Marital Home

A single filer can exclude up to $250,000 in capital gains on the sale of a primary residence if they owned and used the home as their primary residence for at least two of the five years before the sale. A couple filing jointly can exclude up to $500,000. After a divorce, if your former spouse is allowed to live in the home under the divorce decree, you can still count that time toward your residency requirement even if you moved out, and you can count your ex-spouse’s ownership time toward the ownership requirement if the home was transferred to you.¹⁷

Dividing Retirement Accounts

Splitting a 401(k), pension, or other employer-sponsored retirement plan requires a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO). Federal law generally bars assigning retirement plan benefits to anyone other than the participant, and the QDRO is the narrow exception.¹⁸ The order must name the participant and the alternate payee, identify the plan, and specify the dollar amount or percentage awarded. The plan administrator, not the court, decides whether the order qualifies.

A divorce decree saying “wife gets half the 401(k)” is not self-executing. Without a properly drafted QDRO approved by the plan administrator, that language is unenforceable against the plan. If your case involves any employer-sponsored retirement account, prepare and submit the QDRO before the final judgment whenever possible.

Military Retired Pay

Military pensions follow separate rules under the Uniformed Services Former Spouses’ Protection Act. A state court can award a portion of a service member’s military retired pay to a former spouse as part of property division, but the court order must specifically award it.¹⁹ No QDRO is needed. The award must be a fixed dollar amount or a percentage of disposable retired pay, and the Defense Finance and Accounting Service handles direct payment once the order meets federal requirements.

COBRA Health Coverage

If you were covered under your spouse’s employer-sponsored health plan, divorce is a qualifying event allowing you to continue that coverage for up to 36 months under COBRA. You must notify the plan administrator within 60 days of the divorce becoming final.²⁰ COBRA covers group health plans at private-sector employers with 20 or more employees and at state and local governments. You pay the full premium plus up to a 2 percent administrative fee.

Social Security on an Ex-Spouse’s Record

If your marriage lasted at least 10 years before the divorce, you may be able to collect Social Security benefits based on your ex-spouse’s earnings record once you reach age 62.²¹ Claiming on your ex-spouse’s record does not reduce their benefit or affect a current spouse’s benefit, and you must currently be unmarried to qualify. For couples who divorced and later remarried each other, the Social Security Administration can combine both periods toward the 10-year threshold if the remarriage happened no later than the calendar year after the divorce became final.

1
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 61.021 – Residence Requirements
2
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 61.052 – Dissolution of Marriage
3
Pasco County Clerk, FL. Family Court Fees and Costs
4
Florida Courts. Florida Family Law Form 12.982(a) Petition for Change of Name
5
Florida Courts. Instructions for Florida Family Law Form 12.903(a) Answer Waiver and Request for Copy of Final Judgment
6
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 61.19 – Entry of Judgment of Dissolution of Marriage Delay Period
7
Florida Courts. Florida Family Law Rules of Procedure 12.285 – Mandatory Disclosure
8
Florida Courts. Instructions for Florida Family Law Form 12.902(b) Family Law Financial Affidavit Short Form
9
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 61.075 – Equitable Distribution of Marital Assets and Liabilities
10
Florida Senate. Florida Code 61.08 – Alimony
11
Florida Senate. Florida Code 61.13 – Support of Children Parenting and Time-Sharing Powers of Court
12
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 61.30 – Child Support Guidelines
13
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 61.21 – Parenting Course Authorized
14
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 44.102 – Court-Ordered Mediation
15
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 504 Divorced or Separated Individuals
16
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 1041 – Transfers of Property Between Spouses or Incident to Divorce
17
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 523 Selling Your Home
18
U.S. Department of Labor. QDROs Chapter 1 Qualified Domestic Relations Orders an Overview
19
Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Former Spouse Protection Act
20
U.S. Department of Labor. FAQs on COBRA Continuation Health Coverage for Workers
21
Social Security Administration. More Info If You Had a Prior Marriage