For a long time, alimony was a standard component of divorce settlement agreements in California. Most spouses left their regular jobs after marriage to raise their families. Alimony reduced the financial repercussions of divorce at a time when one partner was the sole breadwinner. Currently, alimony is not as common as it used to be, but California courts can still order alimony when appropriate. Alimony is one of the most contested issues during divorce. Many couples have a hard time reaching an agreement on alimony, which explains why most alimony cases are decided in court.
Alimony In California
Also known as spousal support, alimony seeks to provide financial help to a spouse who requires it during a divorce. It also helps a spouse who needs it for the period after marriage dissolution. If you are already in the process of planning a divorce, you and your spouse could agree in writing that one of you will support the other financially for a certain period. If you request alimony as part of the divorce filing process, the court has the power to determine whether to grant it. The court also has the power to determine the amount of support to award you.
You should understand how alimony works in California, even if you hope to sign an out-of-court settlement agreement with your partner. You should also be aware of the rules that guide the judges when they make spousal support decisions.
Who Pays Alimony In California
The spousal support laws in California are gender neutral, whereby either spouse could demand support. For example, if you require financial support and your spouse can afford to pay it, the court could order them to pay you. The court could also order a higher-earning partner to pay spousal support to the lower-earning partner, irrespective of gender.
However, the rules for determining who should pay spousal support, the amount to pay, and the period the support will last vary.
Types of Spousal Support in California
Typically, the following are the two types of spousal support in California:
- Long-term spousal support
- Temporary spousal support
Long-term Spousal Support
The judge could order your spouse to pay you alimony as part of a final judgment in a legal separation or dissolution of marriage. The judge will decide the period and the amount he/she believes is reasonable and fair under the circumstances.
Usually, the judge can advise you to make efforts and become self-supporting when awarding you long-term spousal support. Long-term spousal support is also known as ''rehabilitative alimony''. It aims at giving you time to adjust and obtain whatever training, work experience, and education you require to get to the point where you can support yourself. The judge could include various provisions in their orders toward that goal. The provisions include:
Reservation Of Jurisdiction
Often, long-term spousal support has an outlined period when the support will end, although the court could reserve legal powers to impose more orders over the matter in the future. The court will make appropriate and fair changes if the unexpected happens, derailing your ability to be self-supporting.
Vocational Evaluation
The court could order you to undergo an evaluation with a vocational training counselor. This evaluation will ascertain your ability to secure the kind of job that will provide similar standards of living you enjoyed during your marriage.
Alimony Step-Downs
The financial support will sometimes reduce at a scheduled period because you are expected to earn more. This is one of the strategies to encourage self-sufficiency.
Conditions That Will End The Support
The court could also impose certain conditions on long-term spousal support. For example, the court could order your spouse to stop the support if you no longer attend a vocational training program or college.
Factors That Determine Long-Term Spousal Support
California does not use a calculator to determine the amount of long-term spousal support. It is up to the discretion of the judges to decide the amount to award after considering the following factors:
- The balance of hardships for each spouse
- How long the marriage lasted
- Each spouse's needs are based on the standard of living they had during their marriage.
- The tax consequences of spousal support
- Each spouse’s ability to earn enough to maintain that standard of living, considering their marketable skills, the job market for those skills, amount of time and training the supported spouse would need to develop those skills. They will also consider how the spouse's earning capacity decreased because of time taken out of the job market to care for the children and home during the marriage.
- Whether there is documented history of domestic violence against either partner or children
- The supporting spouse’s ability to pay alimony
- How much the supported spouse contributed to the other’s educational degree or professional license during their marriage
- The goal is that the alimony recipient becomes self-supporting within a reasonable period.
- Each spouse’s assets and debts, including their separate property
- The supported partner’s ability to acquire meaningful employment without interfering with the interests of children in their physical custody
- Each spouse’s health and age
The Status Of Long-Term Spousal Support In California
According to California law, the court maintains an indefinite jurisdiction over the spousal support matter when you divorce after a long-term marriage. The court will maintain the status quo unless the judge's order provides explicitly otherwise or the couple’s settlement agreement outlines otherwise. The judge will retain legal powers to reinstate, extend, or adjust the amount of spousal support. It also means that the judge does not need to warn you regarding the need to be self-supporting if that would not work out under the circumstances according to California Family Code 4336(a) of 2022.
The indefinite jurisdiction rule does not necessarily mean the alimony will continue until death because you had a long-term marriage. It does not also mean that the judge would not expect you to make efforts towards becoming self-supporting unless it is not feasible because of your disability, age, or physical and mental health.
The mythical 10-year rule and the law presume that any marriage that takes at least ten years counts as long-term marriage. The judge could also find a marriage that has lasted less than ten years eligible for indefinite jurisdiction because of the specific situation, according to California Family Code 4336(b) of 2022.
Temporary Spousal Support
The court could order your spouse to pay you temporary spousal support as legal divorce occurs. In cases of domestic violence, California's limitations on spousal support apply to temporary alimony according to California Family Code 3600 of 2022.
Generally, temporary spousal support would remain effective until the divorce is finalized. However, the court could grant a request to modify or change the support if there is substantial reason to do so, according to California Family Code 3603 of 2022.
Calculating Temporary Spousal Support In California
The court considers a primary factor while ascertaining whether you require temporary spousal support. Judges have maintained that the alimony you should receive must depend on the necessity to maintain the living standard the two of you enjoyed during your marriage.
Of course, it is more costly to meet the needs of two families than a shared one. Therefore, in many cases, the two partners fail to keep up with their previous living standards. However, temporary spousal support aims to keep the status quo as much as possible until the divorce is finalized.
Judges in most counties in California use a common formula to guide them in calculating the amount of temporary alimony. The common formula for the monthly amount is often 40% of the partner that earns a high net monthly income minus 50% of the partner who earns a low monthly net income.
For example, if your spouse earns $6,000 a month and you earn $3,000 a month, temporary alimony would be $900 a month. (40% of $6,000 is $2,400)-(50% of $3,000 is $1,500). Therefore, $2,400-$1,500=$900. The judge could award other support based on specific factors, even in courts that use a temporary alimony guideline.
The Length of Spousal Support in California
In California, temporary spousal support stops when you and your spouse finalize a divorce. However, there is no fixed rule on the period the alimony payment will last. There is one factor that judges often consider while awarding long-term spousal support. This is the goal that you should be self-supporting within a reasonable period. A reasonable period under the law typically means half the time of marriage. For example, spousal support would take four years if you require support after an eight-year marriage. However, the judges could decide to maintain the alimony for a longer or shorter period than that halfway standard. This will depend on your situation pursuant to California Family Code 4320 of 2022.
Alimony stops when you die or remarry, regardless of the date set for ending the spousal support. However, you could still fix any other end date in the settlement agreement according to California Family Code 4335 and 4337 of 2022.
Modifying Alimony
The court could end or modify alimony unless the couple agrees that the support should not be modified. Alimony modification could be necessary if there has been a change of circumstances under California Family Code 3651 of 2022.
The alimony-paying partner could file a formal request with the court if he/she believes that the changed circumstances call for a modification of alimony that he/she is paying you. If the paying spouse fails to secure the services of an attorney, California offers a simplified procedure for requesting a modification of a support order by filing Form FL-390. However, the paying spouse should understand that, unless they agree on the proposed changes, the modification process involves complex legal matters. A competent family attorney can handle the alimony modification process.
Spousal Support And Taxes In California
Your spouse could continue deducting alimony remissions to you from their taxable income if your divorce was finalized before 2019 in California. This happens for the purposes of federal income taxes. The receiving spouse must report the alimony payments as income. However, if you divorced in 2019 and beyond, the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act eliminated the income reporting clause or any tax deduction for spousal support. Therefore, the Internal Revenue Service cannot count alimony payments as income.
The changes affect the federal income taxes only. California law still demands that if you receive alimony, you should include the support on your state tax returns. Your alimony-paying spouse could deduct the payments from income on their state returns. The difference between state and federal tax law for Californians can complicate negotiations for settlement over alimony matters. It makes it hard to guess the overall tax repercussions.
Making Alimony Payments
When the court orders you to make alimony payments, it will dictate how you should make them. Generally, the court will instruct you to pay periodic payments through an income withholding order to your employer. However, if you are self-employed, the law allows the court to order you to provide some reasonable means of security for the spousal support. For example, the court could order you to establish a trust fund for spousal support under California Family Code 4339 of 2022.
If you are behind with spousal support without security or refuse to pay, your spouse has a right to return to court and request the judge to enforce the alimony order. In other situations, the court would order you to pay alimony in cash or property instead of periodic payments. This option could give your spouse peace about receiving periodic payments. However, the court will not allow both of you to request a change in alimony award in the future.
Restrictions on Alimony Payments for Domestic Abusers in California
California law prohibits spousal support for any individual charged with a felony for sexual violence, domestic violence, or attempted murder. This goes along with the court's requirement to consider a record of domestic violence when making decisions regarding alimony payment.
California law on spousal support also presumes that the payment should not be granted to any individual charged with a misdemeanor for domestic violence or other offenses against a spouse. However, the court could consider other factors that would contest that presumption, like your partner's record as a domestic violence victim according to California Family Code 4324, 4324.5, and 4325 of 2022.
The Myth Of ‘’Reimbursement Spousal Support’’ In California
There is a less commonly known spousal support known as ''reimbursement support''. Unfortunately, this type of spousal support is not active. When the court determines how much support you should receive, it will consider your contribution to your spouse's career or education. However, this is only one of several circumstances that go into the decision-making on spousal support.
The reimbursement clause in California law on dividing community property in a divorce is the section that confuses spousal reimbursement matters. The statute on dividing property in divorce allows the court to order that a couple’s estate be reimbursed for any contributions one partner made to the other. For example, the contributions could be on training or education, which significantly enhanced one of the partner’s earning capacity. However, that reimbursement can be offset or reduced under some circumstances. The monetary value of the reimbursement is counted as part of the couple’s property, which will later be divided between the partners. According to California Family Code 2641 of 2022, the support does not go directly to one spouse as a kind of support.
Gavron Warning in California
In California, a Gavron Warning is generally a court notice ordering supported spouses that they should make efforts and become self-supporting within a reasonable period. A Gavron Warning aims to prevent spouses under alimony from depending indefinitely on their previous spouses to support them.
Gavron Warning originates from the Gavron marriage case that the Second Appellate District Court decided in California in 1988. The judge ruled that before terminating or modifying a spousal support order, the supported spouse should be informed of their duties to become self-supporting. In 1988, the courts started abandoning the permanent spousal support order. Instead, they adopted the idea that supported spouses should work hard to become self-supporting.
Terminating Alimony Order
A spouse can terminate their obligation to make alimony payments if they show a legally acceptable change in circumstances. The factors that could warrant a termination include:
- The other spouse has remarried
- A reduction in income that is out of their control, for example, a severe illness
- The other spouse has increased their income
- The spouse is over 65 and about to retire
Find a San Diego Family Law Attorney Near Me
It can be daunting to navigate the legal world if you are tasked with paying alimony or requesting spousal support. You could wonder whether to seek permanent or temporary spousal support. However, the best option is to seek the services of a competent spousal support attorney who has handled alimony payment cases in the past. At the San Diego Divorce Attorney, we will answer all your questions and help you terminate, obtain, and modify spousal support orders. We have handled alimony issues for many years, acquiring favorable outcomes for our clients. Call us at 858-529-5150 and talk to one of our attorneys.
