How Texas calculates spousal maintenance
Texas calls this "spousal maintenance," and it is one of the most restrictive systems in the country — both in who can receive it and in how much a court can order. Rather than a calculation formula, Texas Family Code §8.055 sets a hard ceiling: court-ordered maintenance cannot exceed the lesser of $5,000 per month or 20% of the paying spouse's average monthly gross income. If 20% of gross income is below $5,000, that lower number is the real ceiling; if 20% would exceed $5,000, the $5,000 flat cap controls. Within whatever that ceiling turns out to be, the judge still has to decide the actual dollar amount using the factors in §8.052.
What makes Texas unusual is §8.051, the eligibility gate. Unlike most states, Texas does not make every divorcing spouse potentially eligible for maintenance. A spouse qualifies only if at least one specific condition is met: the marriage lasted 10 or more years and the requesting spouse lacks sufficient property or income to provide for their own minimum reasonable needs; or the paying spouse was convicted of, or received deferred adjudication for, a family-violence offense against the requesting spouse or their child within two years of the case being filed (or during the case); or the requesting spouse has an incapacitating physical or mental disability; or the requesting spouse is caring for a child of the marriage whose disability requires substantial care that prevents the requesting spouse from earning sufficient income. Outside of those four paths, Texas courts generally cannot order spousal maintenance at all, regardless of how large the income gap is.
Once eligibility is established, §8.052 lists the factors a judge weighs to set amount and duration within the statutory cap: each spouse's financial resources; the requesting spouse's education, employment skills, and the time needed to acquire more training; the duration of the marriage; age, employment history, earning ability, and physical or emotional condition; the effect an award would have on the paying spouse's own ability to meet their needs; homemaker contributions; marital misconduct — explicitly including adultery and cruel treatment; property the requesting spouse brought into the marriage; and any history of family violence.
Duration is also capped by statute under §8.054, scaled to how long the couple was married: up to 5 years for marriages of 10 to 20 years, up to 7 years for marriages of 20 to 30 years, and up to 10 years for marriages of 30 or more years. Maintenance awarded on the family-violence ground is capped at 5 years no matter how long the marriage lasted. Maintenance based on a qualifying disability, however, can continue for as long as the disability persists, without the same fixed ceiling.
On fault: Texas does weigh marital misconduct, but not as an automatic bar or an automatic trigger. Adultery and cruel treatment are explicit §8.052 factors a judge can use to adjust amount and duration within the cap — a meaningfully different approach from states like Georgia, where proven adultery causing the separation is a complete bar to alimony.
There have been no amendments to the text of Family Code Chapter 8 identified for 2025-2026 — §§8.051, 8.052, 8.054, and 8.055 remain as codified. The significant recent development is judicial, not legislative: in Mehta v. Mehta (Texas Supreme Court, decided June 20, 2025), the court clarified that a party seeking maintenance does not need exacting, itemized numerical proof of their post-divorce needs — competent qualitative evidence can be enough — and that when a trial court treats child support as available to meet a requesting spouse's own minimum reasonable needs under §8.051, it must also account for the child-related expenses that child support money is actually meant to cover. That refines how the §8.051 "minimum reasonable needs" test is applied in practice, without changing the statute itself.
Last reviewed: July 2026. Statute citations: Tex. Family Code §8.051 (eligibility), §8.052 (factors), §8.054 (duration caps), §8.055 (amount cap); Mehta v. Mehta, No. 23-0507 (Tex. June 20, 2025).
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a Texas alimony formula?
Not a calculation formula — a cap. Family Code §8.055 caps court-ordered spousal maintenance at the lesser of $5,000 per month or 20% of the paying spouse's average monthly gross income. Within that cap, the judge sets the actual amount using the §8.052 factors.
Who qualifies for spousal maintenance in Texas?
Texas is unusually restrictive. Under Family Code §8.051, a spouse qualifies only if the marriage lasted 10+ years and the requesting spouse lacks enough property or income for minimum reasonable needs, or the paying spouse was convicted of (or received deferred adjudication for) a family-violence offense against the requesting spouse or their child, or the requesting spouse has an incapacitating disability, or the requesting spouse cares for a child of the marriage with a disability that prevents earning sufficient income.
How long does Texas spousal maintenance last?
Family Code §8.054 caps duration by marriage length: up to 5 years for marriages of 10-20 years, up to 7 years for 20-30 years, and up to 10 years for 30+ years. Maintenance based on family violence is capped at 5 years regardless of marriage length. Disability-based maintenance can continue as long as the disability persists.
Does adultery affect alimony in Texas?
It can. Family Code §8.052 lists marital misconduct, including adultery and cruel treatment, as a factor the judge weighs in setting the amount and duration within the statutory cap. It is not an automatic bar or an automatic award trigger — it's one factor among several.
What did the Mehta v. Mehta ruling change in Texas?
Mehta v. Mehta (Texas Supreme Court, decided June 20, 2025) is a case-law clarification, not a change to the statute. It holds that courts don't need exacting, itemized numerical proof of a spouse's post-divorce needs — qualitative evidence can be enough — and that if a court counts child support as available to meet the requesting spouse's minimum reasonable needs under §8.051, it must also account for the child-related expenses that child support is meant to cover.