The rest of what we have written about Arkansas. Every figure is quoted from Arkansas’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.
Dividing property and money in a Arkansas divorce
The money picture for a divorce in Arkansas: how property gets divided, what Arkansas calls spousal support and how it is decided, whether one spouse can be made to pay the other’s legal fees while the case is running, and — the part nobody publishes — whether Arkansas’s own income tax follows the federal rule on alimony.
See a different stateArkansas
Every claim is traced to Arkansas’s own statute, court rule or revenue department, quoted where the wording carries the meaning. Where we could not verify something, the page says so instead of filling the space. Information, not legal advice — and tax questions in particular need a professional in your state. Corrections: thecusp.app/corrections.
Does Arkansas follow the federal alimony rule?
Since 2019, federal law has treated alimony as not deductible by the payer and not taxable to the recipient, for any instrument executed after 31 December 2018. Most people assume every state followed. Most did. Not all.
Arkansas is decoupled because it froze the federal rule in place forty years ago. Ark. Code § 26-51-417 adopts 26 U.S.C. § 71 and § 215 “in effect on January 1, 1987” as Arkansas’s own rule for including and deducting alimony.
Because Arkansas incorporated a historical snapshot rather than tracking current federal law, the 2017 repeal of those sections does nothing to the Arkansas statute — the 1987 text simply carries forward as state law. The payer deducts and the recipient includes on the Arkansas return.
It is worth seeing this next to Alabama, because the two look identical and are opposites. Both name §§ 71 and 215 by number. Alabama’s reference floats, so when the federal sections were repealed Alabama’s rule emptied out with them. Arkansas’s reference is pinned to a date, so it survived. Four words — ‘in effect on January 1, 1987’ — are the whole difference.
This is the single most valuable fact on this page and almost nobody publishes it. It means the federal answer is not your answer: alimony that is invisible on your 1040 still moves on your state return.
Source: Arkansas Dept. of Finance & Administration, 2024 Form AR1000F and AR1000NR Instructions (Line 12, ‘Alimony Received’; Line 24 adjustments listing ‘Alimony/Separate Maintenance Paid’); DFA, ‘What’s New for 2018’ (‘Arkansas has not conformed to certain provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA)’) · source
Nationally: 36 states follow the federal rule, 9 have no income tax, 4 are decoupled, and 1 — Maine — we could not establish. The full fifty-state table and what each decoupled state does differently.
How property is divided
Arkansas is an equitable distribution state. That means the court divides marital property fairly, which is not a synonym for equally. What counts as marital rather than separate property is frequently the whole argument.
All marital property shall be distributed one-half (1/2) to each party unless the court finds such a division to be inequitable. In that event the court shall make some other division that the court deems equitable
Source: Ark. Code Ann. § 9-12-315(a)(1)(A)
Alimony
Arkansas calls it alimony. Using the state’s own word matters when you are searching for forms or reading a statute.
There is no guideline calculation. A judge weighs the statutory factors and reaches a number.
This is the norm and it is why alimony is the least predictable figure in a divorce. Two judges can reach different answers on the same facts and both be right. It also means the strength of your evidence about income, earning capacity and the standard of living during the marriage does real work.
the court shall make an order concerning the care of the children, if there are any, and an order concerning alimony, if applicable, as are reasonable from the circumstances of the parties and the nature of the case
Source: Ark. Code Ann. § 9-12-312(a)(1)
Child support
Arkansas uses the income shares model — both parents’ incomes go into the calculation, and the result is apportioned between you.
Whichever model applies, this is the most predictable number in your case — there is a formula and a presumption that its output is correct. Deviating from it takes written findings. Run it early; it is free, and it anchors everything else.
Guideline: Ark. Sup. Ct. Admin. Order No. 10 (Arkansas Child Support Guidelines, income-shares model adopted effective June 2020)
How Arkansas calculates child support, in detail
Who pays for the lawyers
Fee-shifting provision: Ark. Code Ann. § 9-12-309(a)(1)-(2)
During the pendency of an action for divorce… the court may: (A)(i) Allow to the wife or to the husband maintenance; (ii) Allow a reasonable fee for his or her attorneys
A fee award that only arrives at final judgment is close to worthless to someone who could not afford a lawyer during the case. By then it is over. An interim award is what stops a wealthier spouse winning by attrition.
If you are the lower earner, this is the single most actionable thing on this page. Ask at the first meeting, in these words: “Can we move for an interim award of attorney fees now?” Do not let “we will deal with fees at the end” pass unexamined.
Separately, if custody is contested you may be ordered to pay for a guardian ad litem or a custody evaluator, and the court decides how to split that. What that costs in Arkansas, and who bears it.
The thing worth knowing about Arkansas
Arkansas is one of the clearest current examples of a state where alimony is still taxed the old way on the state return even though it has been federally tax-neutral since 2019 — meaning a divorcing Arkansan must track a separate ‘phantom’ state deduction/inclusion never mirrored on the federal Form 1040 for any instrument executed after 2018.