Alimony in Louisiana.
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 stateLouisiana
Louisiana has a real statutory cap on the AMOUNT of post-divorce spousal support, expressed as a fraction of the payer's income. La. Civ. Code art. 112(D): 'The sum awarded under this Article shall not exceed one-third of the obligor's net income. Nevertheless, when support is awarded after a judgment of divorce is rendered pursuant to Article 103(4) or (5), or when the court determines that a party or a child of one of the spouses was the victim of domestic abuse committed by the other party during the marriage, the sum awarded may exceed one-third of the obligor's net income and may be awarded as a lump sum.' This is a Civil Code article, not a court rule and not a local rule, and it governs FINAL periodic support after the divorce. It does not govern interim spousal support under art. 113, which has no cap and is set on 'the needs of that party, the ability of the other party to pay, any interim or final child support obligation, and the standard of living of the parties during the marriage'. Read at https://legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx?d=108548
It tells you the most a court may order. It does not tell you what a court will order.
Use the state’s own words
Louisiana calls it spousal support, in two named forms: 'interim periodic support', also called 'interim spousal support' (La. Civ. Code art. 113), and 'final periodic support' (art. 112). The Civil Code articles do not use the word 'alimony'.. 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 bracket keyed to the length of the marriage; 'The duration of the marriage' is factor (7) of art. 112(B). Louisiana instead legislates two hard clocks. First, interim support ends by operation of law: art. 113(A), 'An award of interim spousal support shall terminate one hundred eighty days from the rendition of a judgment of divorce, except that the award may extend beyond one hundred eighty days but only for good cause shown.' Second, the right to claim final support after divorce is extinguished by a peremptive period. La. Civ. Code art. 117, captioned 'Peremptive period for obligation': 'The right to claim after divorce the obligation of spousal support is subject to a peremption of three years. Peremption begins to run from the latest of the following events: (1) The day the judgment of divorce is signed. (2) The day a judgment terminating a previous judgment of spousal support is signed, if the previous judgment was signed in an action commenced either before the signing of the judgment of divorce or within three years thereafter. (3) The day of the last payment made, when the spousal support obligation is initially performed by voluntary payment within the periods described in Paragraph (1) or (2) and no more than three years has elapsed between payments.' Peremption, unlike prescription, is not merely a limitation on the remedy: it extinguishes the right itself and cannot be interrupted or suspended. Read at https://legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx?d=108560
Does behavior matter?
Marital misconduct
VERIFIED. Louisiana's fault rule is a true bar, not a factor, and it is written into the grant of power itself. La. Civ. Code art. 111 confines final periodic support to 'a party who is in need of support and who is free from fault prior to the filing of a proceeding to terminate the marriage', and art. 112(A) repeats it: 'When a spouse has not been at fault prior to the filing of a petition for divorce and is in need of support … that spouse may be awarded final periodic support in accordance with Paragraph B of this Article.' Freedom from fault is an element of the claim. Note the limits of the rule as drafted. It applies to FINAL periodic support only: art. 113 imposes no freedom-from-fault requirement, so a spouse who is at fault may still receive interim spousal support during the case and for up to 180 days after the divorce. The Code does not define 'fault' in these Articles. Fault also runs the other way, as a presumption in the claimant's favor. La. Civ. Code art. 112(C): 'When a spouse is awarded a judgment of divorce pursuant to Article 103(2), (3), (4), or (5), or when the court determines that a party or a child of one of the spouses was the victim of domestic abuse committed by the other party during the marriage, that spouse is presumed to be entitled to final periodic support.'
When it ends, and when it can change
What brings it to an end
La. Civ. Code art. 115, captioned 'Extinguishment of support obligation': 'The obligation of interim spousal support or final periodic support is extinguished upon the remarriage of the obligee, the death of either party, or a judicial determination that the obligee has cohabited with another person of either sex in the manner of married persons.' That single sentence is the whole of Louisiana's cohabitation rule and the whole of its definition: 'cohabited with another person of either sex in the manner of married persons'. The Code fixes no minimum period and requires no showing of financial benefit, unlike Connecticut, where the living arrangements must alter the recipient's financial needs. Retirement is not addressed. Read at https://legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx?d=108556
Changing it later
La. Civ. Code art. 114: 'An award of interim spousal support or final periodic support may be modified if the circumstances of either party materially change and shall be terminated if it has become unnecessary. The subsequent remarriage of the obligor spouse shall not constitute a change of circumstance.' La. Civ. Code art. 116: 'The obligation of final spousal support may be modified, waived, or extinguished by judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction or by authentic act or act under private signature duly acknowledged by the obligee.' Article 116 is the express authority for the parties to deal with support out of court; the Code does not separately address a stipulation that support is non-modifiable, and art. 114's mandatory 'shall be terminated if it has become unnecessary' sits awkwardly with any such stipulation. Read at https://legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx?d=108552 and https://legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx?d=108558
Worth knowing about Louisiana
Three things. First, art. 114's second sentence — 'The subsequent remarriage of the obligor spouse shall not constitute a change of circumstance' — forecloses by statute the commonest modification argument there is. Second, the one-third-of-net-income cap in art. 112(D) is lifted, and lump-sum support becomes available, where the divorce was granted under Article 103(4) or (5) or where the court finds domestic abuse; the cap is thus a cap on ordinary cases only. Third, the three-year peremption in art. 117 means a Louisiana spouse who takes no support at the divorce and asks for it four years later has no claim at all, whatever the need.
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, Louisiana’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: La. Rev. Stat. § 47:293(1) (Definitions – ‘Adjusted gross income’) the state source
The other number that decides your budget
How Louisiana calculates child support, and the overnight count that moves it more than income does.
And the question underneath it
What Louisiana presumes about custody, and what the judge has to weigh.
The rest of what we have written about Louisiana. Every figure is quoted from Louisiana’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.