Spousal Support in South Carolina: Types, Awards, and Enforcement

Spousal support in South Carolina, called alimony, is money one spouse pays the other during or after a divorce or separate maintenance action. The Family Court picks from several types of alimony, weighs 13 statutory factors to set the amount and duration, and can bar support entirely if the spouse seeking it committed adultery before the case was resolved.¹ There is no formula. Judges have broad discretion, which is why the type of alimony awarded, the length of the marriage, and the conduct of each spouse matter so much to the outcome.

Types of Alimony a Court Can Award

South Carolina recognizes five main forms of alimony, and each has its own rules about when it ends and whether it can be changed later.¹

Periodic alimony. Ongoing payments, usually monthly. It ends on the recipient’s remarriage, continued cohabitation with a romantic partner, or the death of either spouse. It is the most common form and can be modified later.
Lump-sum alimony. A fixed total paid at once or in installments. It cannot be modified and does not end on remarriage. Courts use it when they want a clean, final resolution.
Rehabilitative alimony. A finite amount meant to fund education, training, or other steps toward self-sufficiency. It ends when the recipient completes the program, remarries, cohabits, or either spouse dies, and the amount can be adjusted if circumstances change.
Reimbursement alimony. Compensation for a spouse who invested in the other’s career during the marriage, such as paying for a professional degree. The amount is set and ends only on the recipient’s death.
Separate maintenance and support. Functionally similar to alimony but awarded when spouses live apart without divorcing.

The court can also award temporary support (alimony pendente lite) while the case is pending, which keeps a dependent spouse afloat during months of litigation.

How Judges Decide the Amount and Duration

South Carolina does not use a formula. The Family Court weighs 13 factors and has broad discretion to set both how much is paid and for how long.¹

Length of the marriage.
Ages of the spouses, both at marriage and at the time of the action.
Physical and emotional health of each spouse.
Educational background and any need for additional training.
Employment history and earning potential.
The standard of living established during the marriage.
Current and reasonably anticipated earnings.
Current and reasonably anticipated expenses.
Marital and nonmarital property each spouse receives.
Child custody responsibilities.
Marital misconduct, particularly conduct that affected the couple’s finances.
Tax consequences of the particular alimony form.
Prior support obligations from a previous marriage.

Judges can also consider any other factor they find relevant. In practice, the length of the marriage and the income gap between spouses tend to drive the result more than anything else on the list. A long marriage with one spouse out of the workforce produces very different numbers than a short marriage of two earners.

When Adultery Bars Support

Adultery is the one form of misconduct that can disqualify a spouse from receiving alimony entirely. By statute, a spouse who commits adultery before either signing a written settlement agreement or receiving a permanent court order forfeits all right to support.¹

The bar is severe but not absolute. South Carolina appellate decisions have recognized at least two exceptions. If the other spouse condoned the adultery, meaning they knew about it and chose to stay in the marriage, they cannot later use it to block alimony. And a valid settlement agreement that provides for alimony can override the statutory bar, even for adultery that happened before the agreement was signed.²

Proving adultery takes more than suspicion. The accusing spouse must show both inclination (romantic or sexual interest) and opportunity (circumstances where the affair could have occurred). Text messages, photographs, hotel records, and witness testimony are common forms of proof. Because the financial stakes are so high, these fights tend to get contested hard.

What Ends or Changes Alimony Later

Cohabitation and the 90-Day Rule

If you receive periodic or rehabilitative alimony, moving in with a romantic partner can end your payments. South Carolina defines “continued cohabitation” as living with another person in a romantic relationship for 90 or more consecutive days.¹ The statute also anticipates gamesmanship: if the supported spouse repeatedly moves in and out to avoid hitting the 90-day mark, the court can still find cohabitation exists. A written agreement between the parties can change this default, so some settlements define cohabitation differently or waive the trigger.

Lump-sum alimony is not affected by cohabitation. It is a fixed, nonmodifiable award and continues regardless of living arrangements.

Modifying an Existing Order

Periodic alimony is not locked in. Either spouse can ask the Family Court to increase, decrease, or terminate payments if circumstances have materially changed since the original order.³ Common grounds include a significant change in income, the supported spouse becoming self-sufficient, serious illness, or involuntary job loss. The change has to be substantial and unanticipated. A small raise or a modest expense increase will not do it.

Retirement gets special treatment. The supporting spouse’s retirement is automatically sufficient grounds for a hearing, though the court will evaluate whether retirement was anticipated at the time of the original order, the supporting spouse’s age and health, whether retirement was mandatory or voluntary, and how it affects income before adjusting the award.³

Lump-sum and reimbursement alimony cannot be modified. Once set, those amounts are final. That matters when negotiating a settlement, because accepting a lump-sum award trades flexibility for certainty.

How Alimony Is Taxed

For any divorce or separation agreement signed after December 31, 2018, the federal rules are straightforward. The payor gets no deduction, and the recipient does not report the payments as income.⁴ Congress repealed the longstanding deduction as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act for all agreements executed after that date.⁵

Older agreements from before 2019 still follow the old rules: the payor deducts the payments and the recipient reports them as taxable income. If you modify a pre-2019 agreement and the modification expressly adopts the new tax treatment, the post-2018 rules apply going forward.⁴ The practical effect is that payors on newer agreements are paying with after-tax dollars, which changes what each side considers a fair number in negotiation.

Securing Payments With Life Insurance

Alimony depends on the payor staying alive long enough to pay it. South Carolina law lets the court order the supporting spouse to maintain a life insurance policy naming the recipient as beneficiary, securing the award beyond the payor’s death.¹ The court looks at premium costs, the payor’s insurability, existing policies, and the recipient’s likely financial situation if the payor died. This matters most for long-running periodic awards. In settlement negotiations the insurance requirement is one of the most commonly overlooked details, and without it the recipient can be left with nothing.

How to Request Alimony

Financial Declaration

Before the court will consider an alimony request, both parties must file a Financial Declaration on the form prescribed by the South Carolina Supreme Court. It is required in every family court case where finances are at issue.⁶ The form requires a detailed breakdown of monthly gross income from all sources, mandatory payroll deductions, and itemized monthly expenses. Pull together your last three years of federal tax returns, recent pay stubs, documentation of health insurance costs, and records of other income or debts. Judges rely heavily on this declaration to set both temporary and permanent support, and inaccuracies create credibility problems that bleed into the rest of the case.

Filing and Temporary Support

To request alimony, the spouse seeking it files a Summons and Complaint with the Family Court. The filing fee is $150.⁷ The other spouse must be formally served, and once served, has 30 days to file an answer.⁸ If you need financial help right away rather than waiting months for a final hearing, ask for temporary alimony early. Temporary hearings rely mostly on affidavits and financial declarations rather than live testimony, so having your paperwork organized from the start is critical.

How Payments Flow

Most alimony orders direct payments through either the County Clerk of Court or the South Carolina State Disbursement Unit rather than directly between spouses.⁹ Routing through an agency creates a reliable paper trail that settles later disputes about whether payments were made on time. The court can also order direct payment between spouses and assign responsibility for any service fees.¹

Enforcement When a Spouse Stops Paying

If a spouse falls behind, the recipient has several enforcement tools. The strongest is a contempt action. The Family Court can sanction a spouse who willfully refuses to comply with a support order, including compensatory damages that reimburse the recipient for attorney fees and other costs incurred in forcing compliance.¹⁰ “Willful” is the key word. If the payor genuinely cannot afford payments because of job loss or illness, contempt is harder to prove, though the recipient can still pursue modification.

Wage garnishment is another route: the court can order the payor’s employer to withhold alimony directly from the paycheck. An alimony judgment can also be recorded as a lien against the payor’s property in any South Carolina county, giving it the same force as a court of common pleas judgment. If the payor has moved out of state, the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act lets the recipient register the South Carolina order in the new state and enforce it there as if it were a local order.

1
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 20-3-130 – Award of Alimony and Other Allowances
2
South Carolina Judicial Department. Dallas S. Maxwell, Jr. v. Lori L. Maxwell
3
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 20-3-170 – Modification of Alimony
4
Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 452, Alimony and Separate Maintenance
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 71 – Alimony and Separate Maintenance Payments (Repealed)
6
South Carolina Judicial Branch. Rule 20 – Financial Declaration
7
South Carolina Judicial Branch. Court Fees
8
South Carolina Judicial Branch. Rule 12
9
South Carolina Department of Social Services. State Disbursement Unit
10
South Carolina Judicial Branch. Rule 14