Virginia Alimony Laws: Factors, Duration, and Modification

Alimony in Virginia — which the statutes call “maintenance and support” — is a court-ordered payment from one spouse to the other, meant to close the income gap that opens up when a marriage ends. Virginia alimony laws set out a formula for temporary support during a divorce and a thirteen-factor analysis for permanent awards, along with rules on fault, modification, and termination. The governing statutes are Virginia Code §§ 20-103, 20-107.1, and 20-109.

Types of Support a Court Can Order

While a divorce is pending, a judge can order pendente lite support so a lower-earning spouse has income during litigation. This can run for months or years depending on how long the case takes.

After the divorce is final, the court can structure support in any of several ways:

Periodic payments for a defined duration — monthly installments for a set number of years, often tied to how long the recipient needs to become self-supporting.
Periodic payments for an undefined duration — ongoing monthly payments with no fixed end, reserved for situations like a very long marriage or health problems that prevent employment.
Lump-sum support — a single payment or a fixed total paid in installments, useful when the paying spouse has the liquid assets to settle at once.
Any combination of the above.

The statute gives judges wide discretion to pick the format that fits the couple’s finances.¹

The Pendente Lite Formula

Temporary support is the one place Virginia gives you a real number. Unlike final awards, pendente lite support starts with a presumptive figure calculated from each spouse’s gross monthly income.²

With minor children, the presumptive amount is 26% of the payor’s monthly gross income minus 58% of the payee’s monthly gross income. Without minor children, it is 27% of the payor’s monthly gross income minus 50% of the payee’s. If the result is negative, the award is zero.

The formula only applies when the couple’s combined monthly gross income is $10,000 or less — roughly $120,000 per year. Above that, the court sets the amount without the formula’s guidance.³

A judge can deviate from the presumptive amount for good cause, including either party’s actual financial circumstances or tax exemptions that would make the formula result inappropriate. When child support is also on the table, the court sets spousal support first, because spousal support feeds into the child support calculation.²

The Thirteen Factors for a Final Award

Final spousal support has no formula. Virginia Code § 20-107.1(E) instead lists thirteen factors a judge weighs to decide amount and duration:

Each spouse’s financial obligations, needs, and resources, including income from pensions, retirement plans, and profit-sharing accounts.
The standard of living established during the marriage.
The duration of the marriage.
Each spouse’s age, physical and mental condition, and any special circumstances.
Whether the age or condition of a child of the parties makes it appropriate for a parent to stay out of the workforce.
Monetary and non-monetary contributions to the family’s well-being, including homemaking and child-rearing.
Property interests, both marital and separate.
How marital property was divided in the equitable distribution ruling.
Each spouse’s earning capacity, including education, skills, training, and current job opportunities.
The time and cost required for a spouse to acquire the education, training, or employment needed to become self-supporting.
Decisions made during the marriage about employment, career, economics, education, and parenting, and how those decisions affected each spouse’s future earning potential.
Contributions one spouse made to the other’s education, career, or profession.
Any other factor the court finds necessary to reach an equitable result, including tax consequences and the circumstances that led to the divorce.

No single factor controls. A judge can lean heavily on whichever ones matter most in a given case, which is why awards vary widely between households with similar incomes.¹

How Long Support Lasts

Virginia does not fix the duration of a final award by statute. The length turns on the same thirteen factors, and marriage length carries the most weight. Short marriages rarely produce long-term support, and marriages of fewer than five years seldom result in extended or indefinite awards. Long marriages, especially those where one spouse spent years outside the workforce, are more likely to draw undefined-duration support.

One statutory benchmark exists for reservations of support — situations where the court preserves a spouse’s right to seek support later rather than awarding it now. In that case, there is a rebuttable presumption that the reservation lasts for half the length of the marriage, measured from the wedding date to the date of separation.¹ Either side can present evidence to overcome that 50% figure.

How Adultery Affects Eligibility

Virginia is one of the states where marital fault can bar an award outright. Under Virginia Code § 20-107.1, a court generally cannot award permanent maintenance and support to a spouse if the other spouse has established a valid ground for divorce based on adultery.¹ Adultery is listed as a fault ground under Virginia Code § 20-91(A)(1).⁴

The bar is not absolute. A judge can still award support to a spouse who committed adultery if denying support would be a “manifest injustice.” The court has to find that result by clear and convincing evidence, weighing both spouses’ respective degrees of fault and their relative economic circumstances. It is a high standard. A typical scenario might involve an adulterous spouse whose partner was physically abusive, or a situation where the offending spouse would face severe destitution while the other spouse is financially comfortable.

Settlement Agreements Between Spouses

Many Virginia divorces resolve support by written agreement rather than by a judge’s ruling. Those agreements carry real weight. If a signed stipulation or contract is filed with the court before the final decree, the court generally cannot order support that conflicts with the agreement’s terms.⁵

The key question is whether the agreement locks the numbers in for good. For agreements signed on or after July 1, 2018, a court cannot refuse to modify support based on the agreement alone unless the agreement expressly states that the amount or duration is non-modifiable. If you want your terms to be final, the document has to say so in plain language. Vague terms or silence leave the door open for either spouse to seek a change later.⁵

A spouse who waives support entirely gives up a right a court might otherwise have granted. A spouse who agrees to a specific amount without a non-modifiable clause is exposed to future reduction requests. The details of the agreement matter, and they matter permanently.

When Support Ends Automatically

Three events terminate spousal support by law unless the parties’ written agreement says otherwise:

Death of either spouse.
Remarriage of the recipient. Support ends on the date of the new marriage, and the recipient has a legal duty to notify the payor immediately. Failing to do so entitles the payor to recover every dollar paid after the remarriage date, plus interest and reasonable attorney’s fees.⁶
Habitual cohabitation. If the recipient has lived with another person in a relationship analogous to marriage for one year or more, the court must terminate support on the payor’s motion, supported by clear and convincing evidence.⁵

The cohabitation rule has an escape valve. Even after the payor proves cohabitation, the recipient can avoid termination by showing that ending support would be unconscionable. The recipient carries that burden and must meet it by a preponderance of the evidence.

Modifying a Support Order

A support order can be revisited. Either spouse can petition to increase, decrease, or end support by showing a material change in circumstances that was not reasonably in view when the original order was entered. The court can also modify support when a specific event the judge relied on in setting the amount does not happen, through no fault of the party seeking the change.⁵

Common grounds include involuntary job loss, a serious illness or disability that limits earning ability, or a significant increase in the recipient’s income. Each request requires a new filing and a hearing.

Retirement as a Trigger

Virginia law specifically addresses retirement. When the payor reaches full retirement age — the age at which a person qualifies for full Social Security benefits, not early retirement age — that event is treated as a material change in circumstances by statute. The payor does not have to prove the change was unforeseeable.⁵

Once the court finds a material change based on retirement, it looks at the thirteen standard factors plus six additional considerations: whether the court anticipated and considered retirement when the original award was set; whether the retirement is mandatory or voluntary and its terms; how retirement changes each spouse’s income; the age and health of both parties; how long support has already been paid and in what amounts; and each spouse’s assets from the date of the original order through the modification hearing. These retirement provisions apply regardless of when the original order was entered, unless the underlying agreement contains a non-modifiable clause.

Enforcement If a Spouse Stops Paying

An unpaid support order is a violation of a court order, and Virginia gives the recipient several enforcement tools.

The most direct is contempt of court. If a spouse ignores a support order, the court can issue a show cause summons requiring them to appear and explain themselves. A finding of contempt can carry a jail sentence of up to 12 months.⁷

Beyond contempt, Virginia allows income withholding, where the court directs the payor’s employer to deduct support from wages. Every support order can include an income withholding provision, and if the payor falls behind by even one month, withholding can be triggered. The court can also reach pension, profit-sharing, and retirement benefits through a qualified domestic relations order.⁸

Tax Treatment

For any divorce or separation agreement finalized after December 31, 2018, spousal support payments are not deductible by the payor and are not counted as taxable income for the recipient. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act repealed the longstanding federal deduction.⁹

The old rules still apply to agreements executed on or before December 31, 2018, unless a later modification expressly adopts the new tax treatment. Under the old system, the payor deducted the payments and the recipient reported them as income. Tax consequences remain one of the thirteen factors Virginia courts consider when setting support, so a higher-earning payor who can no longer deduct payments may face a heavier real cost, and a judge may account for that in the award.¹

1
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 20-107.1 – Court May Decree as to Maintenance and Support of Spouses
2
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 20-103 – Court May Make Orders Pending Suit for Divorce, Custody or Visitation
3
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 16.1-278.17:1 – Formula for Determination of Pendente Lite Spousal Support
4
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 20-91 – Grounds for Divorce From Bond of Matrimony
5
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 20-109 – Changing Maintenance and Support for a Spouse
6
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 20-110 – Maintenance and Support for a Spouse to Cease on Remarriage
7
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 16.1-278.16 – Failure to Comply With Support Obligation
8
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 20-113 – Procedure When Respondent Fails to Perform Order for Support and Maintenance
9
IRS. Topic No. 452, Alimony and Separate Maintenance