Do I have to pay alimony in Texas? Can I get alimony in Texas? The answers are not as simple as a yes or no. But it's not rocket science either. If you browse this article, you will learn that whether alimony will be a part of your divorce depends partly on what stage of the divorce you are in.
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Alimony (that you agree to) vs. Court-ordered Spousal Maintenance
There are really two different kinds of "alimony" in Texas: alimony that is negotiated, and then spousal maintenance that is court-ordered. Negotiated alimony is a contract between the parties. Often such alimony is agreed to in lieu of dividing up a particular asset. For example, perhaps the most valuable asset of a particular marriage is the husband's plumbing business, which the parties agree is worth $200,000. Husband and wife agree that the husband can keep the business in the divorce, but agree that the husband will pay the wife $100,000 in alimony to offset the wife's loss. In contrast to agreed-to alimony, the Court can order "spousal maintenance" in certain circumstances. When (and under what circumstances) the court can order spousal maintenance is the subject of the next paragraph.
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Court-ordered Spousal Maintenance
In Texas, the Court can order spousal maintenance if certain conditions are met. In order to qualify for maintenance, the spouse seeking the award must show that the duration of the marriage was 10 years or longer, and that the spouse seeking maintenance lacks sufficient property (including money and property derived through the divorce itself) to provide for the spouse's "minimum reasonable needs," and the spouse seeking maintenance either: a) is unable to support herself through employment because of an incapacitating physical or mental disability, or b) has custody of a child of the marriage who requires substantial care and personal supervision because a physical or mental disability makes it necessary that the spouse not be employed outside the home, or c) clearly lacks earning ability in the labor market adequate to provide support for the spouse's "minimum reasonable needs." A spouse can also qualify for spousal maintenance in another instance (see next paragraph).
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Family Violence and its effect on Spousal Maintenance
In addition to the eligibility for court-ordered alimony (called "Maintenance") described above, a spouse also can qualify for maintenance if the "paying" spouse was convicted of a crime that constitutes "an act of family violence" (or received deferred adjudication for such a crime), and that crime occurred within two years before the date the divorce suit is filed, or occurred while the divorce is pending.
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Limits on the Duration and Amount of Spousal Maintenance
In Texas, spousal maintenance cannot be awarded for more than three years after the divorce decree is signed, unless the spouse seeking maintenance has an incapacitating physical or mental disability that makes that spouse unable to support himself or herself through appropriate employment. So, usually, three years will be the cap, but it can be longer in that special circumstance of disability. The caps on the amount of spousal maintenance that can be awarded is the lesser of $2,500 per month, or 20 percent of the spouse's average monthly gross income. But remember that the purpose of spousal maintenance is generally to provide for the spouse's minimum reasonable needs, so there is certainly no guarantee of getting $2,500 per month. A court will sometimes look at what a spouse's actual living expenses are and then subtract income such as employment income and child support, and then perhaps use spousal maintenance to make up the difference or part of the difference.
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Termination of Spousal Maintenance
The obligation to pay court-ordered maintenance terminates on the death of either party or on the remarriage of the spouse receiving the maintenance. Also, after a court hearing, the court can terminate the maintenance order if the receiving spouse lives with another person "in a permanent abode on a continuing, conjugal basis." But remember, contractual alimony (that is, alimony that the parties have negotiated) can be very different, because when it is an agreed upon contract the purpose of the payments is sometimes to compensate a spouse for giving up a particular piece of property (like a business), and in that situation the party receiving alimony is unlikely to agree that the alimony should cease just because she moves in with a paramour.
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