Alimony in Iowa.
Whether the state sets a formula or leaves it to the judge, what the court has to weigh, how long it runs, and what brings it to an end.
See a different stateIowa
No formula, cap or presumptive amount for spousal support, in the Code or in any statewide court rule found on the Iowa Judicial Branch's own site. Iowa's child support guidelines are statutory and presumptive under Iowa Code s. 598.21B, and s. 598.21C(2)(a) makes a ten per cent variance from them a substantial change of circumstances by operation of law; s. 598.21A creates no equivalent for spousal support and names no number of any kind.
Use the state’s own words
Iowa calls it spousal support. Iowa Code s. 598.21A is captioned 'Orders for spousal support'; the body of the section calls the claimant 'the party seeking maintenance' and the modification section, s. 598.21C, is captioned 'Modification of child, spousal, or medical support orders'. Iowa also recognizes a separate action for 'separate maintenance' (s. 598.28).. Using the state’s own term matters when you are searching for forms or reading an order — the words are not interchangeable across state lines, and some of them mean different things in different places.
What the law actually says
The power the court has
What the judge has to weigh
How long it lasts
Duration
No. Iowa Code s. 598.21A(1) authorizes support 'for a limited or indefinite length of time'. 'The length of the marriage' is factor (a), but no bracket, presumption or maximum is keyed to it. The commonly used Iowa vocabulary of traditional, rehabilitative and reimbursement spousal support does not appear in the statute at all; those categories come from decisions of the Iowa appellate courts.
Does behavior matter?
Marital misconduct
Not addressed. Iowa Code ss. 598.21A and 598.21C contain no fault factor and no fault bar, and neither mentions adultery or desertion. The only nearby fault provision points the other way and concerns the dissolution itself: Iowa Code s. 598.18 is captioned 'Recrimination not a bar to dissolution of marriage'.
When it ends, and when it can change
What brings it to an end
Not addressed. Iowa Code chapter 598 contains no provision terminating spousal support on death, remarriage, cohabitation or retirement. The chapter's full section list was read, and the sections that might have carried such a rule were read in full: s. 598.20, captioned 'Forfeiture of marital rights', provides only that 'When a dissolution of marriage is decreed the parties shall forfeit all rights acquired by marriage which are not specifically preserved in the decree', and expressly does not disturb the support sections; ss. 598.20A and 598.20B are beneficiary-revocation provisions for life insurance and retirement accounts, not support provisions. Iowa instead routes remarriage and support by a new partner through modification, as factors: Iowa Code s. 598.21C(1)(g), 'Remarriage of a party', and s. 598.21C(1)(h), 'Possible support of a party by another person'. Neither terminates anything of itself. A temporary order has its own end point, Iowa Code s. 598.11(2): 'If the order is not so modified, it shall continue in force and effect until the action is dismissed or a decree is entered dissolving the marriage.'
Changing it later
Iowa Code s. 598.21C(1): 'Criteria for modification. Subject to 28 U.S.C. s. 1738B, the court may subsequently modify child, spousal, or medical support orders when there is a substantial change in circumstances. In determining whether there is a substantial change in circumstances, the court shall consider the following: a. Changes in the employment, earning capacity, income, or resources of a party. b. Receipt by a party of an inheritance, pension, or other gift. c. Changes in the medical expenses of a party. d. Changes in the number or needs of dependents of a party. e. Changes in the physical, mental, or emotional health of a party. f. Changes in the residence of a party. g. Remarriage of a party. h. Possible support of a party by another person. i. Changes in the physical, emotional, or educational needs of a child whose support is governed by the order. j. Contempt by a party of existing orders of court. k. Entry of a dispositional or permanency order in juvenile court pursuant to chapter 232 placing custody or physical care of a child with a party who is obligated to pay support for a child. … l. Other factors the court determines to be relevant in an individual case.' Whether the parties may agree that spousal support is non-modifiable is not addressed by the statute.
Worth knowing about Iowa
Two things. First, Iowa is one of the few states to make an antenuptial agreement an express factor in the spousal support award itself rather than a separate contractual question: s. 598.21A(1)(i), 'The provisions of an antenuptial agreement.' Second, s. 598.21A(1)(h) makes a factor of 'Any mutual agreement made by the parties concerning financial or service contributions by one party with the expectation of future reciprocation or compensation by the other party' — the classic put-a-spouse-through-school bargain, written into the statute as a factor rather than left to a reimbursement doctrine.
The tax rule changed, and most guides still describe the old one
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.
This is not a detail. Under the old rule a higher-rate payer could transfer income to a lower-rate recipient and the two of them shared the saving. That saving no longer exists, which changes what a given number is worth to each side. New Hampshire wrote the point into its own statute: its 23 per cent figure assumes non-deductibility, and reverts to 30 per cent if the federal treatment is ever restored.
Alongside the federal rule, Iowa’s own income tax follows the federal treatment. That means the federal answer above is the whole answer here — no state adjustment for alimony either way. Four states do not — Arkansas, California, New Jersey and New York — so this is worth knowing rather than assuming. The fifty-state table.
Source: Iowa Code § 422.3(5) (Definitions controlling chapter – ‘Internal Revenue Code’) the state source
The other number that decides your budget
How Iowa calculates child support, and the overnight count that moves it more than income does.
And the question underneath it
What Iowa presumes about custody, and what the judge has to weigh.