Divorce money in Hawaii: property, support, legal fees and whether the state taxes alimony
The money picture for a divorce in Hawaii: how property gets divided, what Hawaii 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 Hawaii’s own income tax follows the federal rule on alimony.
See a different stateHawaii
Every claim is traced to Hawaii’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 Hawaii 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.
Hawaii uses a static (fixed-date) IRC conformity provision that the legislature updates roughly annually. The current conformity date is December 31, 2024 – well after the TCJA’s December 22, 2017 enactment – so Hawaii’s income tax law incorporates the TCJA’s repeal of the alimony deduction/inclusion (IRC §§61(a)(8), 71, 215) for instruments executed after December 31, 2018.
So the federal answer is your answer: post-2018 instruments, no deduction and no inclusion, on either return.
Source: Haw. Rev. Stat. § 235-2.3(a) (Conformance to the federal Internal Revenue Code; general application) · source
Conformity: static: 31 Dec 2024 (updated annually by the legislature; post-TCJA)
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
Hawaii 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.
finally dividing and distributing the estate of the parties, real, personal, or mixed, whether community, joint, or separate … orders that appear just and equitable
Source: Haw. Rev. Stat. § 580-47(a)
Spousal support and maintenance
Hawaii calls it spousal support and maintenance. 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, in ordering spousal support and maintenance, shall consider the following factors: (1) Financial resources of the parties … (13) Probable duration of the need
Source: Haw. Rev. Stat. § 580-47(a)
Who pays for the lawyers
may make such orders requiring either party to pay or contribute to the payment of the attorney’s fees, costs, and expenses of the other party … as shall appear just and equitable after consideration of the respective merits of the parties
Source: Haw. Rev. Stat. § 580-47(f)
After the filing of a complaint for divorce or separation the court may make such orders relative to the personal liberty and support of either spouse pending the complaint … The court may also compel either spouse to advance reasonable amounts for the compensation of witnesses and other expenses of the trial, including attorney’s fees, to be incurred by the other spouse (Haw. Rev. Stat. § 580-9)
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 Hawaii, and who bears it.
The thing worth knowing about Hawaii
Hawaii’s ‘partnership model’ of property division (developed under HRS §580-47 case law) subjects even premarital and separate property (inheritances, gifts, pre-marriage assets) to the equitable-division ‘estate of the parties,’ categorized into net market value ‘categories’ – a broader divisible estate than most equitable-distribution states use. See e.g. 138 Haw. 185, 378 P.3d 901 (2016).
What we could not verify
For Hawaii, we could not confirm the following from a primary source. We would rather print the gap than fill it:
- the child support model
If you practice in Hawaii and can point us at the right provision, tell us. Corrections are published with the date, what changed, and how long the error was live.