Key Takeaways:
- Child support and alimony are both payments one former partner makes to the other, but the payments have key differences.
- Child support is an automatic legal obligation intended to help meet a child’s needs and provide for their well-being, while alimony isn’t automatic and goes toward helping a financially dependent former spouse gain financial independence.
- Child support typically lasts until the child reaches adulthood, while alimony typically lasts a limited percentage of the length of the marriage.
- You may modify child support and alimony court orders if there has been a substantial change in circumstances.
- You typically calculate child support using set guidelines, while most states don’t offer guidelines for calculating alimony.
Child support and alimony (often called spousal support or spousal maintenance) are payments one former romantic partner may make to the other. Beyond that core similarity, the differences between what is alimony vs. child support are significant.
Child support is a legal obligation in every state that applies to almost every parent and is designed to cover a child’s basic needs and support their well-being. Alimony is limited to spouses in the process of separating or former spouses and is only available for spouses who aren’t financially independent.
As we explore below, alimony vs. child support varies in four specific ways:
- The purpose of payments
- How long payments last
- How courts determine eligibility
- How you calculate payments
What exactly is alimony?
Alimony is court-ordered financial support from one current or former spouse to the other, usually made in monthly payments. Most states now call alimony spousal support or maintenance, though some still use the term alimony.
There are different types of alimony:
- Pendente lite alimony: The court may order a higher-earning spouse to pay spousal support during the divorce process.
- Temporary alimony: Awarded for a short period of time, the goal of this payment is to help a spouse while they seek education, training or employment to be able to support themselves.
- Permanent alimony: Also called long-term alimony, courts rarely award permanent alimony. It’s often reserved for cases when the recipient spouse lacks the current capacity to earn a living and the capacity to gain the skills necessary to earn a living. It may also be awarded in exceptional circumstances where significant disparities exist between the spouses, they’ve been married for a long time and one spouse gave up opportunities for the other.
Additionally, post-divorce alimony payments may be for rehabilitation or reimbursement.
- Rehabilitative alimony: This helps a former spouse while they obtain the skills and education necessary to become economically independent.
- Reimbursement alimony: This is awarded to compensate spouses who supported a higher-earning spouse to the detriment of their own earning capacity.
Pro tip:
Alimony varies significantly from state to state, especially compared to child support. Some states are more favorable than others, but many states are moving away from alimony as an expected part of divorce and limiting it to long-term marriages and particularly needy spouses.
To determine whether to award alimony, most courts rely on the same handful of factors, including:
- The duration of the marriage
- The spouses’ incomes and earning capacities, including education, work histories, ages and relative health
- Each spouse’s resources and financial need, including the lower-earning spouse’s ability to meet their basic needs without help and the higher-earning spouse’s ability to pay
- Contributions each spouse made to the marriage, including maintaining the home and raising any children
- The marital standard of living
- Child custody arrangements
Among these factors, the length of the marriage and financial need typically play the largest role.
Pro tip:
Your marital standard of living is unique to your individual circumstances. Maintaining the marital standard of living typically means continuing to enjoy the same necessities and luxuries you enjoyed while you were married. When documenting your needs for the court, be sure to include all the things you regularly spent money on while you were married.
Understanding child support
Child support is court-ordered financial support paid by one parent to the other. Every state imposes a legal obligation on a child’s parents to support the child until adulthood. The obligation typically lasts until the child turns 18 or graduates from high school—whichever occurs last.
Child support pays for meeting children’s basic needs, such as food, housing, healthcare, education and other essential expenses.
Usually, the parent who cares for the child less often under the parents’ custody arrangement pays child support. This parent is sometimes called the “noncustodial parent” because they don’t have primary care of the child. (The parent with primary custody is called the “custodial parent”.)
When parents spend equal or near-equal time with the children, the parent with the higher income may pay child support to the parent with the lower income to help the children enjoy a similar standard of living in both homes.
Unlike with alimony, the parents don’t need to have ever been married for child support to be awarded. But the parents must be the child’s legal parents. This may mean being listed on their birth certificate, adopting the child, submitting documents to the state confirming paternity or completing a paternity court case.
Pro tip:
Different states have different rules about when an unmarried father should be included on a birth certificate, and some states default to having the husband on the birth certificate even if the husband isn’t the father. If in doubt, consult your state’s secretary of state website to learn how to submit a paternity declaration to ensure the correct person is listed as the child’s father.
States usually have specific guidelines to determine how much a noncustodial parent pays in child support based on factors like:
- Each parent’s income
- Custody arrangements, particularly how much time the child spends with each parent
- How many children the paying parent is supporting
Alimony vs. child support: What sets them apart?
The most significant difference between alimony vs. child support may be the degree to which they’re obligatory. Most of the time—though not always—the parent who primarily cares for a child is entitled to receive support from the other parent. In contrast, a spouse must request alimony and may have an uphill battle to justify why they should get it and for how long.
Along with that core distinction, key differences between alimony and child support include their purposes, their duration, how you qualify, how you calculate it and how you modify it.
Purpose of payment differs
The purpose of alimony may be to provide for the needs of a financially dependent spouse or to compensate a spouse for sacrifices they made on the other’s behalf. The purpose of child support is to provide for the needs of the child and enable that child to thrive.
Length of support varies
Alimony is typically short-term, with long-term alimony being the exception. By and large, alimony ends when the court order says it ends. In many states, that means alimony lasts a percentage of the length of the marriage. Typically, a longer marriage leads to a longer period of alimony. In most cases, alimony ends if the receiving party remarries or moves in with a romantic partner.
Child support usually lasts until the child turns 18 or, if they’re still enrolled in school when they turn 18, until the child graduates. Payments may last longer for children who may struggle to support themselves after becoming legal adults, such as those with special needs.
Different eligibility requirements matter
Some of the factors that courts use to evaluate eligibility for alimony vs. child support are the same. This often includes:
- Each party’s income
- Any special needs of the spouse or child
- Which parent is the primary caregiver
Other factors used to evaluate eligibility differ. Unlike child support, alimony:
- Is limited to current or former spouses
- Depends primarily on marriage length and financial need
On the other hand, child support:
- Is obligatory for all noncustodial parents, regardless of income
- Focuses on the child’s needs
Payment calculation methods differ
Few states offer specific alimony formulas. Instead, most state laws provide a list of factors judges should consider in calculating alimony, such as:
- Each spouse’s income
- The receiving spouse’s needs
- The paying spouse’s ability to pay while meeting their own needs
- The length of the marriage.
Without a specific formula, judges rely on the facts you present, the law and their opinions about the circumstances to determine alimony.
Pro tip:
Who your judge is may have far more of an effect on whether you get alimony than whether you get child support. This is because judges have more discretion. In legal contexts, this means they can use their own judgment rather than a law or formula to decide the outcome.
Most states do offer child support formulas, though. These provide a relatively straightforward method for calculating child support based on:
- Parental income
- Number of children supported
- Custody arrangements
Calculating payments tends to be more complicated in states that consider both parents’ incomes. These states typically consider relative custody time more directly. They often adjust payments based on the specific percentage of time each parent spends with the child rather than the overall custody arrangement.
While courts can typically deviate from the child support formula in specific circumstances, the formula provides a default calculation.
Who qualifies for alimony vs. child support payments?
Who qualifies for alimony vs. child support payments frequently overlaps, with some exceptions. First, alimony is only available to former spouses, while child support is available to both former spouses and former unmarried partners. Additionally, financial needs, who provides primary childcare, who earns more, the needs of the children and their ages may affect who qualifies for both.
Ex-spouse with financial needs
A former spouse with financial needs often qualifies for alimony If the couple shares children, the spouse’s financial needs may result in adjustments to child support payments too.
Primary childcare parent
Being the custodial parent (that is, the one who provides primary childcare) makes you more likely to receive alimony. And unless you have joint physical custody, the primary parent typically receives child support payments, even if they earn more than the other.
Lower-income partner
To qualify for alimony, you typically have to earn less than your former spouse. The same is typically true for child support if you share joint physical custody with the child’s other parent.
Children under legal age
Generally, child support helps provide for children under age 18. However, children with severe disabilities may qualify for support into their adult years.
Whether a former spouse is caring for children under age 18 or adult children with serious disabilities may also increase the chances of that spouse receiving alimony. Caring for children leaves less time to earn income.
Benefits of alimony and child support
Alimony and child support significantly benefit the recipient while ensuring the payer isn’t at risk. The payments create a safety net and often prove crucial in preventing financial hardship and allowing lower-earning partners to provide for themselves and their children.
Alimony offers several unique benefits, like:
- Providing stability for economically disadvantaged or dependent former spouses
- Helping dependent spouses gain financial independence
- Compensating for sacrifices one spouse made on the assumption that they’d benefit from their spouse’s earnings in the long term (such as not working or pursuing higher education)
Child support:
- Ensures children maintain their quality of life after divorce or separation
- Covers essential expenses like food, housing, clothing and healthcare
- Helps the custodial parent afford children’s educational needs, including school supplies, tuition and extracurricular activities
Financially dependent former spouse
Alimony may help a dependent former spouse by giving them a solid foundation until they find employment or other opportunities to achieve financial independence. And child support may help them maintain consistency in their child’s life without worrying about how they will afford it.
Children’s basic living needs
Child support’s primary purpose is to provide for a child’s basic needs, which allows the child to grow and, ideally, thrive. Through alimony, a former spouse may meet their own needs. In turn, they may provide for their children’s needs more effectively and efficiently.
Stay-at-home parent
Alimony and child support may prove vital for a stay-at-home parent, especially one who stayed at home since the children were born. These parents often face challenges returning to the workforce, such as employers who question their abilities, the need to find childcare and outdated skills. Extra support gives them more time to get back on their feet.
Child’s educational requirements
Child support directly contributes to ensuring children have the educational opportunities and resources they need. Alimony allows the primary parent to focus on helping the child with any struggles in school and means they usually don’t have to work long or strange hours.
How courts calculate alimony and child support
Most states offer general child support formulas, which provide a relatively straightforward method for calculating child support based on:
- Parental income
- Number of children supported
- Special needs of parents or kids
- Custody arrangements
Few states offer specific alimony formulas. Colorado and Arizona are exceptions. Instead, most states identify factors for judges to consider in calculating alimony, such as:
- The length of the marriage
- Living expenses
To decide whether to order alimony and how much, judges rely on your evidence, the law and their reasoned judgment.
Parent income levels
Generally, for a judge to award alimony, one spouse must earn significantly less than the other. Greater disparities typically justify higher alimony payments. But a spouse on relatively equal financial footing with the other is unlikely to receive any payments.
One of the most significant differences in how states calculate child support is whether they consider both parents’ incomes or only the paying parent’s income. In states that consider only the paying parent’s income, payments are typically a percentage of the income based on how many children the parent supports.
Number of children
While the number of children is not a common alimony factor, child support formulas typically take the number of children who need support and how many children the payor is supporting into account. A court may be more likely to award alimony to a parent supporting many children.
Special needs
A former spouse with special needs—especially needs that prevent them from achieving financial independence—may be more likely to qualify for alimony. If the spouse’s special needs are lifelong, courts may even order permanent alimony.
Child support also generally accounts for the children’s needs. So if a child has special needs, child support may increase to reflect those needs.
Length of marriage
Often, alimony payment amounts are tied to income levels, while how long the alimony lasts is limited to a percentage of the marriage’s duration. However, whether parents were ever married doesn’t affect child support payments or calculations.
Both parents’ living expenses
Alimony calculations take into account both parties’ reasonable living expenses, in light of the standard of living they enjoyed during the marriage. But living expenses typically don’t factor into child support calculations, which are usually based on a parent’s income.
What paperwork do you need for alimony and child support?
To qualify for child support or alimony, you typically need to provide details about your finances. That may mean providing documentation of your:
- Income: Pay stubs, tax returns, bank statements and, if you own a business, financial statements related to it
- Expenses: Monthly utility bills, a lease or mortgage statement, medical bills and receipts for educational purchases
- Assets: Deeds, mortgage statements, vehicle titles or loan documents, statements from retirement accounts and statements from investment accounts
- Debts: Statements including those detailing student loans, credit card debt or other funds you owe
You may also need to provide documents related to your children, including:
- Their birth certificate
- A copy of your custody agreement (if you have one)
- School records like report cards, documents showing participation in extracurricular activities or enrollment forms
- Their health insurance
- Documentation of childcare expenses like daycare or babysitter charges, grocery receipts or medical bills
Often, courts ask you to use these documents to complete one or more worksheets. These worksheets are typically available online for free from court-affiliated websites.
Bottom line
While alimony and child support are both court-ordered financial obligations between one former romantic partner and the other, they’re different in significant ways. They serve distinct purposes, follow different calculation methods, have different eligibility requirements and last different lengths.
Ultimately, alimony and child support may work together to assist a dependent former spouse with primary childcare responsibilities, especially when those children are young. Alimony provides for the spouse, hopefully allowing them to gain financial independence. Child support provides for the child, ensuring their needs are met while the parents navigate the change in their relationship and beyond.
Sources
https://casetext.com/statute/colorado-revised-statutes/title-14-domestic-matters/dissolution-of-marriage-parental-responsibilities/article-10-uniform-dissolution-of-marriage-act/section-14-10-114-spousal-maintenance-advisory-guidelines-legislative-declaration-definitions; https://www.azleg.gov/viewdocument/?docName=https://www.azleg.gov/ars/25/00319.htm; https://www.irs.gov/faqs/interest-dividends-other-types-of-income/alimony-child-support-court-awards-damages/alimony-child-support-court-awards-damages-1#:~:text=Child%20support%20payments%20are%20not%20subject%20to%20tax
