Texas is an alimony state, but only in a narrow sense. Courts can order post-divorce spousal maintenance under Chapter 8 of the Texas Family Code, and spouses can also agree to contractual alimony in a settlement. Court-ordered payments are capped at the lesser of $5,000 per month or 20% of the paying spouse’s average monthly gross income, they run for a limited number of years tied to the length of the marriage, and they are available only when the requesting spouse can prove they cannot cover basic living expenses after the property is divided. Texas treats maintenance as a temporary bridge to self-sufficiency, not a way to equalize lifestyles.
Two Kinds of Support in Texas
Texas law separates post-divorce financial support into two categories, and they operate very differently.
Court-ordered spousal maintenance is governed by Chapter 8 of the Family Code. A judge can award it only when strict eligibility rules are met, and it comes with hard ceilings on both the monthly amount and the total duration. Because it is a court order, a spouse who stops paying can face contempt proceedings, including possible jail time.
Contractual alimony, sometimes called spousal support, is a voluntary arrangement the spouses negotiate as part of their divorce settlement. It is not bound by the statutory eligibility rules or payment caps, so couples can agree to higher amounts or longer terms than a judge could impose. The trade-off is enforcement. Contractual alimony is treated as a contract rather than a court order, so if the paying spouse falls behind, the receiving spouse generally has to sue for breach of contract. A court cannot use contempt to enforce any portion of an agreed maintenance order that exceeds what the court itself could have ordered.1State of Texas. Texas Code Family Code 8.059 – Enforcement of Maintenance Order
Most of what follows deals with court-ordered maintenance, because that is what people usually mean when they ask whether Texas allows alimony.
Who Qualifies for Court-Ordered Maintenance
Getting a Texas court to award spousal maintenance is deliberately hard. The requesting spouse must clear two separate hurdles under Section 8.051.
Insufficient Property After the Divorce
The spouse must show that after the marital property is divided, they will not have enough assets, including their separate property, to meet their minimum reasonable needs. Courts look at basic necessities: housing, food, medical care, transportation, utilities. If the requesting spouse has enough property or income to handle those costs, the analysis ends and no maintenance is awarded.2State of Texas. Texas Family Code 8.051 – Eligibility for Maintenance
One of Four Qualifying Situations
Even after proving insufficient property, the requesting spouse must also fit at least one of these categories:
- Family violence. The other spouse was convicted of or received deferred adjudication for a family violence offense committed during the marriage, and the offense occurred within two years before the divorce was filed or while the case was pending. Deferred adjudication counts, not just a final conviction.
- Long marriage. The spouses were married for at least 10 years and the requesting spouse cannot earn enough to cover basic needs.
- Disability of the spouse. The requesting spouse has a physical or mental disability that prevents them from earning sufficient income.
- Disability of a child. The requesting spouse cares for a child of the marriage, of any age, whose physical or mental disability requires substantial supervision that keeps the parent from earning enough.2State of Texas. Texas Family Code 8.051 – Eligibility for Maintenance
The 10-year marriage path is the one most people think of, but the family violence and disability paths carry real weight because they can unlock much longer payment periods.
One important boundary: maintenance must be established during the divorce itself. If a spouse loses a job or becomes disabled after the divorce is final, that is not grounds to open a new maintenance case. Section 8.057 only allows changes to an order that already exists.3State of Texas. Texas Family Code Chapter 8 – Maintenance
How Much and How Long
Texas places firm ceilings on both the dollar amount and the length of court-ordered maintenance.
The Monthly Cap
A court cannot order more than the lesser of $5,000 per month or 20% of the paying spouse’s average monthly gross income.4State of Texas. Texas Code Family Code 8.055 – Amount of Maintenance If the paying spouse earns $15,000 per month in gross income, 20% is $3,000, and $3,000 becomes the cap because it is less than $5,000. Gross income for this calculation includes wages, salaries, commissions, overtime, tips, and bonuses.3State of Texas. Texas Family Code Chapter 8 – Maintenance
Duration by Length of Marriage
How long payments can last depends mainly on how long the marriage lasted:
- 10 to 20 years of marriage: up to 5 years of maintenance
- 20 to 30 years: up to 7 years
- 30 years or more: up to 10 years
Even within those windows, the court is required to limit payments to the shortest period that allows the receiving spouse to become self-supporting.5State of Texas. Texas Family Code 8.054 – Duration of Maintenance Order Reaching the maximum is not automatic. It usually requires concrete evidence of the barriers standing between the requesting spouse and a paycheck.
The exceptions involve family violence and incapacitating disability. When the qualifying ground is family violence, or a disability of the spouse or a child that prevents self-support, the court can order maintenance for as long as the qualifying condition continues, without a fixed year cap.5State of Texas. Texas Family Code 8.054 – Duration of Maintenance Order
What the Judge Weighs
Clearing the eligibility bar does not mean a spouse walks out with the maximum. Section 8.052 lists the factors a court weighs to set the amount and duration, including:
- Each spouse’s financial resources after the divorce, including property received and income potential.
- Education and job skills of both spouses, and how long it would realistically take the requesting spouse to train for suitable employment.
- Length of the marriage. Longer marriages tend to support longer maintenance because one spouse may have been out of the workforce for years.
- Age, employment history, and the physical and emotional condition of the spouse seeking support.
- Marital misconduct, including adultery and cruel treatment.
- Contributions one spouse made to the other’s earning power, such as working to put a spouse through school.
- Homemaker contributions, including managing the household and raising children.
- Any documented history of family violence between the spouses.3State of Texas. Texas Family Code Chapter 8 – Maintenance
No single factor controls. Two marriages of identical length can produce very different awards depending on the spouses’ ages, health, and work histories. Cases most often fall apart on the self-sufficiency question, where the requesting spouse needs specifics rather than a general claim of needing more time.
Enforcement
Court-ordered maintenance carries genuine teeth. The receiving spouse can file a contempt motion showing that the paying spouse willfully failed to comply with the order. Penalties can include a fine and confinement in county jail for up to six months. A court can also jail someone specifically to compel compliance, meaning the paying spouse stays confined until they pay or prove they cannot.
An income withholding order is often the more practical tool. It directs the paying spouse’s employer to deduct maintenance from wages before the money reaches the employee, and it takes priority over most other non-tax garnishments.6Texas Office of the Attorney General. Income Withholding Frequently Asked Questions
Contractual alimony sits outside this framework. If the agreed amount exceeds what a court could have ordered under the statutory caps, the excess cannot be enforced through contempt, and the receiving spouse has to pursue a breach-of-contract claim.1State of Texas. Texas Code Family Code 8.059 – Enforcement of Maintenance Order
When Payments Change or Stop
Either former spouse can ask the issuing court to modify the maintenance order after a material and substantial change in circumstances, such as the paying spouse losing a job or the receiving spouse gaining new income. Two limits apply. A modification can never increase the amount above the original figure or push the end date past what was originally ordered, and it applies only to payments coming due after the motion is filed. Past-due payments cannot be retroactively wiped out.3State of Texas. Texas Family Code Chapter 8 – Maintenance
Payments end automatically if either former spouse dies or if the receiving spouse remarries. Cohabitation can also end maintenance, but it takes a court hearing: the paying spouse must show that the receiving spouse is living with a romantic partner in a permanent residence on a continuing basis.7State of Texas. Texas Code Family Code 8.056 – Termination
Termination cancels future payments but does not erase what was already owed. If the paying spouse is $3,000 behind when the receiving spouse remarries, that $3,000 remains a valid debt even though no new payments will accrue.8State of Texas. Texas Family Code 8.056 – Termination