Florida ended permanent alimony in 2023. That is half the story.
What the act did, who it reaches, who it does not, and the two numeric ceilings it added that most guides still do not mention.
Yes, Florida abolished permanent alimony. Chapter 2023-315, Laws of Florida — Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 1416 — was approved by the Governor on 30 June 2023 and took effect on 1 July 2023. The act’s own title says what it did, in these words: “removing a provision authorizing the court to award permanent alimony”.
But an award made before that date still exists, and it is still permanent alimony. What the act abolished was the court’s power to make a new one. Any page that says Florida “ended permanent alimony” without that distinction is describing only half of what happened — and the half it leaves out is the one that matters to everybody already paying or receiving it.
OneExactly who the act reaches
This is the whole question, and the act answers it in a single subsection that it added for the purpose.
Fla. Stat. s. 61.08(11), verbatim and in full: “The court shall apply this section to all initial petitions for dissolution of marriage or support unconnected with dissolution of marriage pending or filed on or after July 1, 2023.”
Read on Florida’s own site, leg.state.fl.us. Checked 23 August 2026.Read that slowly, because two things follow from it and they point in opposite directions.
It caught cases that were already in the system. The word is “pending or filed”. A petition sitting on a docket on 30 June 2023 was decided under the new law, not the one in force when it was filed.
It does not reach an existing award. The subsection speaks only to initial petitions. A final judgment entered before 1 July 2023 was made under the former statute, and nothing in s. 61.08(11) touches a supplemental petition to modify it. A Florida permanent alimony award made in, say, 2015 is still a permanent alimony award today.
The practical version
If your case began on or after 1 July 2023, or was pending that day, permanent alimony is not available to either of you.
If you already have an order for permanent alimony from before then, you still have it. It can be modified, reduced or terminated on the ordinary grounds — and on two further grounds set out below — but it was not converted into something else by the 2023 act.
TwoWhat is left, and what each form can run to
Four forms survive. “Permanent” is no longer among them, and the same act went through the code deleting the word — the family law handbook section, s. 741.0306(3)(f), now reads in full: “Alimony, including temporary, durational, rehabilitative, and lump sum.”
| Form | Longest it can run | What the statute requires |
|---|---|---|
| Temporary | Until the case ends | Support during the proceeding itself. |
| Bridge-the-gap | 2 years | “May not exceed 2 years”, s. 61.08(6). Not modifiable in amount or duration. |
| Rehabilitative | 5 years | “May not exceed 5 years”, s. 61.08(7)(c), and requires “a specific and defined rehabilitative plan included as a part of any order”, s. 61.08(7)(b). |
| Durational | See below | Not available at all after a marriage lasting less than 3 years, s. 61.08(8)(a). |
How long durational alimony can last
The act set three marriage-length classes by rebuttable presumption, then put a percentage ceiling on each. From s. 61.08(5) and s. 61.08(8)(b):
| Marriage | Length | Durational alimony may not exceed |
|---|---|---|
| Short-term | Under 10 years | 50% of the length of the marriage |
| Moderate-term | 10 to 20 years | 60% of the length of the marriage |
| Long-term | 20 years or more | 75% of the length of the marriage |
The length of the marriage runs “from the date of marriage until the date of filing of an action for dissolution of marriage”. The ceiling can be exceeded only on a showing of clear and convincing evidence and on four further enumerated factors at s. 61.08(8)(b)1.–4.
ThreeThe two numeric ceilings almost nobody mentions
Florida still has no formula that produces a number. Since 2023 it has two hard constraints on the outcome, and they are the part of the act with the most money in it.
The cap on amount, s. 61.08(8)(c), verbatim and in full: “The amount of durational alimony is the amount determined to be the obligee’s reasonable need, or an amount not to exceed 35 percent of the difference between the parties’ net incomes, whichever amount is less. Net income shall be calculated in conformity with s. 61.30(2) and (3), excluding spousal support paid pursuant to a court order in the action between the parties.”
The floor under the payor, s. 61.08(9), verbatim and in full: “The award of alimony may not leave the payor with significantly less net income than the net income of the recipient unless there are written findings of exceptional circumstances.”
Both at leg.state.fl.us. Checked 23 August 2026.Note where the definition of “net income” comes from. The cap points at s. 61.30(2) and (3) — the child support section. Florida’s alimony ceiling runs on the child support definition of income, which is not obvious from reading s. 61.08 alone and which matters a great deal when income is not a salary.
And note what these two subsections do and do not do. They tell you the most a court may order. They do not tell you what a court will order. Written findings of fact are mandatory either way, under s. 61.08(1)(b).
FourTwo other ways an award can end, added by the same act
A supportive relationship
Fla. Stat. s. 61.14(1)(b)1., verbatim: “The court must reduce or terminate an award of support, maintenance, or alimony upon specific written findings by the court that a supportive relationship has existed between the obligee and a person who is not related to the obligee by consanguinity or affinity.”
The verb is must, not may. The burden starts with the obligor, on a preponderance, and shifts once proved. Eleven lettered factors are enumerated at s. 61.14(1)(b)2.a.–k.
Florida does not call this cohabitation, and the difference is deliberate: the statute says expressly that a supportive relationship does not require a conjugal relationship, and does not recognize common law or de facto marriage.
Retirement
Fla. Stat. s. 61.14(1)(c)1., verbatim: “The court may reduce or terminate an award of support, maintenance, or alimony upon specific, written findings of fact that the obligor has reached normal retirement age as defined by the Social Security Administration or the customary retirement age for his or her profession and that the obligor has taken demonstrative and measurable efforts or actions to retire or has actually retired.”
At leg.state.fl.us. Checked 23 August 2026.Here the verb is may. Ten lettered factors follow at s. 61.14(1)(c)2.a.–j., and s. 61.14(1)(c)3. allows the obligor to petition “not more than 6 months before retirement”.
FiveOne oddity worth knowing, and one tax rule most guides get wrong
Florida has no general termination clause
Section 61.08 contains no sentence saying that alimony ends on death or remarriage. The rule is written into two of the four forms and left out of the other two. Bridge-the-gap and durational each say an award “terminates upon the death of either party or upon the remarriage of the obligee”. Rehabilitative and temporary alimony contain no such sentence at all, and s. 61.14 — read in full on 23 August 2026 — supplies no death or remarriage provision either.
The tax treatment changed in 2018, and it is not a detail
For a divorce or separation instrument executed after 31 December 2018, alimony is not deductible by the person paying it and not taxable to the person receiving it. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act repealed the provisions that made it otherwise. For an instrument executed on or before that date the old treatment continues — deductible to the payer, taxable to the recipient — unless it is later modified and the modification expressly adopts the new rule.
Under the old rule a higher-rate payer could shift income to a lower-rate recipient and the two of them shared the saving. That saving no longer exists, which changes what any given number is worth to each side of the table.
Florida levies no state income tax, so the question of whether the state follows the federal rule does not arise here. The federal treatment above is the entire picture.
Authority: Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Pub. L. 115-97, s. 11051, repealing Internal Revenue Code sections 71 and 215; see also IRS Publication 504.
Where all of this comes from
Ch. 2023-315, Laws of Florida (Committee Substitute for Senate Bill No. 1416). Section 5 of the act, verbatim and in full: “This act shall take effect July 1, 2023.” The chapter law records: “Approved by the Governor June 30, 2023. Filed in Office Secretary of State June 30, 2023.” laws.flrules.org/2023/315
Fla. Stat. s. 61.08 — alimony: forms, factors, durational limits, amount cap. Fla. Stat. s. 61.14 — enforcement and modification, supportive relationship, retirement. Both in their present form by s. 1 and s. 3 of ch. 2023-315.
Every quotation on this page was read from Florida’s own statute site and is reproduced verbatim. Checked 23 August 2026. If a figure here has changed, or we have it wrong, tell us — corrections are published with the date and how long the error was live.
The rest of the Florida picture. The full alimony page, with all eight statutory factors and what the judge weighs, is at alimony in Florida. What it costs to file is at what a Florida divorce costs, and the forms and deadlines are in the Florida divorce kit.
Free, no account, nothing to sign up for. If you know somebody in Florida trying to work out whether this applies to them, the answer is in section one and it takes a minute to read.
The Cusp is not a law firm and does not provide legal, financial, or tax advice. This page quotes Florida statutes and summarizes what they say; it is not advice about any particular case, and whether a given rule applies to you depends on facts this page cannot know. How this site makes money is published in full.