Texas divorce law saw meaningful updates during the 2023 (88th) and 2025 (89th) legislative sessions. The new Texas divorce laws most likely to affect your case involve reimbursement claims between marital estates, the interaction between protective orders and divorce decrees, and standardized forms for family violence protections. The core framework — residency, no-fault grounds, community property, the 60-day waiting period, spousal maintenance caps, and child support percentages — remains the same.
Reimbursement Between Marital Estates Now Has a Statute
House Bill 1547, passed in 2023, replaced decades of judge-made reimbursement rules with a codified framework in Chapter 3 of the Texas Family Code.1Texas Legislature Online. 88th Legislature HB 1547 – Bill Text The rules apply to every divorce pending or filed on or after September 1, 2023, which means most active Texas cases are governed by the new statute rather than the older case law.
A reimbursement claim arises when one marital estate uses its property to benefit another estate and failing to repay that benefit would result in unjust enrichment. The statute identifies three situations that create a claim:2State of Texas. Texas Code Family Code 3.402 – Claim for Reimbursement and Offsets
- Paying another estate’s debts, such as using community funds to pay the mortgage on one spouse’s separate-property home. The measure is the dollar amount actually paid.
- Improving real property, such as spending community money to renovate a separate-property house. The measure is how much the improvement increased the property’s value, not the cost of the work.
- Labor beyond basic management, when one spouse’s time and effort grew a separate-property business well past what maintenance required and the community estate was not adequately compensated. The measure is the value of that extra effort.
The spouse asking for reimbursement has to prove all three elements: that the benefit was conferred, its value, and that unjust enrichment would result without repayment. Bank statements, loan records, and property appraisals are the kind of evidence courts expect. The other spouse can offset a reimbursement claim by showing the conferring estate also received related benefits, such as rent-free use of the separate-property home or income from the other estate’s property.
The practical shift is predictability. Before HB 1547, reimbursement disputes turned on shifting precedent; now both spouses and judges work from a written checklist.
Protective Orders Now Override Conflicting Divorce Terms
The 2025 session made several changes to how protective orders operate in divorce cases. Senate Bill 1559 established that a protective order prevails over any conflicting terms in a divorce decree or a suit affecting the parent-child relationship. That eliminates the gray area that used to appear when a custody order and a protective order gave contradictory instructions about contact or visitation.
Senate Bill 1120 extended the duration of certain protective orders to two years from the date of a final divorce decree, a final custody order, or the final disposition of a related criminal case. House Bill 793 converted address and contact-information protection from a discretionary safeguard into a mandatory one whenever an applicant requests it.
These 2025 changes build on Senate Bill 48 from 2023, which required the Office of Court Administration to create standardized forms for protective orders, magistrate’s emergency protection orders, and temporary ex parte orders.3Texas Legislature Online. 88th Legislature SB 48 – Enrolled Bill Text Each form must spell out the prohibitions imposed on the respondent, the duration of the order, and the consequences of a violation. A court’s failure to use the standardized form does not void the order, but the mandate pushes counties toward consistent documentation, which matters when an order needs to be enforced across county lines.
Family Violence Exceptions to the 60-Day Waiting Period
The 60-day waiting period between filing and finalization still applies to every Texas divorce.4State of Texas. Texas Family Code Chapter 6 – Section 6.702 But the statute carves out two exceptions worth knowing if family violence is part of your situation.
A court can skip the waiting period entirely when the respondent has been convicted of or received deferred adjudication for a family violence offense against the petitioner or a member of the petitioner’s household. The same exception applies when the petitioner holds an active protective order or a magistrate’s emergency protection order against the respondent because of violence during the marriage. If either condition is met, the divorce can be finalized as soon as the other legal requirements are satisfied.
Texas defines family violence broadly. It covers any act by a family or household member intended to cause physical harm, bodily injury, assault, or sexual assault against another family or household member, along with threats that reasonably place someone in fear of imminent harm.5State of Texas. Texas Code Family Code 71.004 – Family Violence Child abuse and dating violence fall within the same definition.
Spousal Maintenance Caps and the Federal Tax Shift
Texas remains one of the more restrictive states for spousal maintenance, and the state rules have not been rewritten recently. What has changed is the federal tax treatment layered on top of them, and it changes the math of any settlement negotiation.
To qualify for maintenance in Texas, the requesting spouse must lack enough property after the divorce to cover minimum reasonable needs and must meet one additional condition: a family violence conviction or deferred adjudication against the paying spouse during or shortly before the marriage, an incapacitating physical or mental disability, a marriage of at least 10 years combined with an inability to earn enough to be self-supporting, or primary caretaking responsibility for a child whose disability prevents the caretaker from working.6State of Texas. Texas Code Family Code 8.051 – Eligibility for Maintenance
The monthly amount is capped at the lesser of $5,000 or 20 percent of the paying spouse’s average monthly gross income.7State of Texas. Texas Code Family Code 8.055 – Amount of Maintenance Duration depends on the length of the marriage:8State of Texas. Texas Code Family Code 8.054 – Duration of Maintenance Order
- Family violence eligibility with a marriage under 10 years: up to five years.
- 10 to 20 years: up to five years.
- 20 to 30 years: up to seven years.
- 30 years or more: up to ten years.
Courts can extend maintenance beyond these limits when the receiving spouse has a physical or mental disability, is the custodian of a young child or a child with a disability, or faces another compelling obstacle to self-support.
The tax piece: for divorce agreements executed after December 31, 2018, spousal maintenance is not deductible by the paying spouse and is not taxable income for the receiving spouse.9Internal Revenue Service. Divorce or Separation May Have an Effect on Taxes Maintenance now comes out of after-tax dollars, which raises the real cost to the payor and should factor into what either side accepts at the negotiating table. Child support has never been deductible or taxable, and that has not changed.
What Has Not Changed
Plenty of the framework is the same as before, and assuming otherwise can waste time or money.
Residency requirements are unchanged. Before a Texas court will hear your case, either you or your spouse must have lived in Texas for at least six months and been a resident of the county where you file for at least 90 days.10State of Texas. Texas Code Family Code 6.301 – Residency Requirements
No-fault divorce still runs on “insupportability,” meaning discord or conflict has destroyed the marriage with no reasonable expectation of reconciliation.11State of Texas. Texas Code Family Code 6.001 – Insupportability Fault grounds — cruelty, adultery, abandonment, felony conviction, and living apart for at least three years — remain available but are rarely used because insupportability avoids the burden of proving fault.
Community property still gets divided in a manner the court considers “just and right.”12State of Texas. Texas Code Family Code 7.001 – General Rule of Property Division That standard does not require a 50/50 split. Judges can award a larger share to one spouse based on fault, earning capacity, health, age, and which parent has primary custody. Separate property — anything owned before marriage, inheritances, and personal injury recoveries other than lost wages — stays with the spouse who owns it, but that spouse has to prove separate status by clear and convincing evidence.
Child support percentages are unchanged: 20 percent of the paying parent’s net resources for one child, rising five percentage points per additional child up to 40 percent for five or more.13State of Texas. Texas Code Family Code 154.062 – Net Resources Support normally ends when the child turns 18 or graduates from high school, whichever is later, with the long-standing exception for a child whose disability existed or was known before the 18th birthday and prevents self-support.14State of Texas. Texas Family Code Chapter 154 – Section 154.001
If your case was filed before September 1, 2023, or your final decree is already entered, ask your attorney which rules govern your specific dispute. The reimbursement statute has a defined effective date, and the protective order changes carry their own effective terms tied to when a decree or criminal disposition becomes final.