Alimony in Michigan

Does Michigan have an alimony formula?

No. The judge decides it on the factors.

There is no arithmetic in Michigan’s statute. The court decides the amount and the length from the factors below, and two judges on the same facts can reach different answers. That is not a flaw in how we are describing it; it is how the law is written.

Use the state’s own words

Michigan calls it Both words appear in the same chapter and neither has replaced the other. MCL 552.13 is captioned 'Alimony; costs; termination' and uses 'alimony' for support during the pendency of the action. MCL 552.23, amended in 1999, uses 'spousal support' for the award made on entry of judgment. MCL 552.28 uses 'alimony' again for revision of the judgment. Michigan also grants 'separate maintenance' as a distinct action under MCL 552.7, and MCL 552.23 applies to a 'judgment of divorce or separate maintenance' alike.. 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.

Your browser may warn you about the link below

Michigan’s own legislature site serves an incomplete security certificate. Some browsers show a warning on it and some do not, depending on what they already have cached. It is the state’s real site and the text is the real statute — the fault is in the state’s server configuration, not in the link.

What the law actually says

The power the court has

Mich. Comp. Laws (MCL) 552.23 (award on judgment); MCL 552.13 (alimony during pendency; termination on remarriage); MCL 552.28 (revision or alteration). All are sections of the Revised Statutes of 1846, Ch. 84.MCL 552.23(1): 'Upon entry of a judgment of divorce or separate maintenance, if the estate and effects awarded to either party are insufficient for the suitable support and maintenance of either party and any children of the marriage who are committed to the care and custody of either party, the court may also award to either party the part of the real and personal estate of either party and spousal support out of the real and personal estate, to be paid to either party in gross or otherwise as the court considers just and reasonable, after considering the ability of either party to pay and the character and situation of the parties, and all the other circumstances of the case.' MCL 552.13(1): 'In every action brought, either for a divorce or for a separation, the court may require either party to pay alimony for the suitable maintenance of the adverse party, to pay such sums as shall be deemed proper and necessary to conserve any real or personal property owned by the parties or either of them, and to pay any sums necessary to enable the adverse party to carry on or defend the action, during its pendency.'

What the judge has to weigh

Mich. Comp. Laws (MCL) 552.23 (award on judgment); MCL 552.13 (alimony during pendency; termination on remarriage); MCL 552.28 (revision or alteration). All are sections of the Revised Statutes of 1846, Ch. 84. — the factorsThere is no statutory list of factors. The whole of the statutory standard is the closing clause of MCL 552.23(1), quoted verbatim: 'after considering the ability of either party to pay and the character and situation of the parties, and all the other circumstances of the case.' MCL 552.13(1) supplies no standard at all for support during the pendency of the action. Michigan's familiar multi-factor list for spousal support is judge-made, not statutory; no Michigan Supreme Court opinion is quoted here because none was read from a primary source. Source: https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=mcl-552-23 and https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=mcl-552-13

How long it lasts

Duration

None. Neither MCL 552.23 nor MCL 552.13 ties duration to the length of the marriage, and neither sets a bracket, a presumption or a maximum term. MCL 552.23(1) speaks only of payment 'in gross or otherwise as the court considers just and reasonable.' The length of the marriage is not named anywhere in the statutory text.

Does behavior matter?

Marital misconduct

The statute is silent. Neither MCL 552.13, MCL 552.23 nor MCL 552.28 requires, permits or bars consideration of marital misconduct in setting spousal support. The Michigan Legislature's own page for MCL 552.13 carries the annotation 'Popular Name: No-Fault Divorce', which refers to the grounds for divorce (MCL 552.6), not to the support award. Whether fault may be weighed in a Michigan support award is therefore a question the statute does not answer.

When it ends, and when it can change

What brings it to an end

MCL 552.13(2), quoted verbatim: 'An award of alimony may be terminated by the court as of the date the party receiving alimony remarries unless a contrary agreement is specifically stated in the judgment of divorce. Termination of an award under this subsection shall not affect alimony payments which have accrued prior to that termination.' Note the verb: the court 'may' terminate on remarriage; the statute does not make termination automatic. There is no statutory provision on death of either party, on cohabitation, or on the payer's retirement. The word 'cohabitation' appears in Chapter 552 only in MCL 552.2, which concerns the validity of a marriage, not support. Source: https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=mcl-552-13

Changing it later

MCL 552.28, quoted verbatim: 'On petition of either party, after a judgment for alimony or other allowance for either party or a child, or after a judgment for the appointment of trustees to receive and hold property for the use of either party or a child, and subject to section 17, the court may revise and alter the judgment, respecting the amount or payment of the alimony or allowance, and also respecting the appropriation and payment of the principal and income of the property held in trust, and may make any judgment respecting any of the matters that the court might have made in the original action.' The statute states no threshold such as 'substantial change in circumstances' and imposes no time limit. Source: https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=mcl-552-28

Worth knowing about Michigan

Two things. First, the vocabulary is genuinely split inside one chapter: 'alimony' in MCL 552.13 and 552.28, 'spousal support' in MCL 552.23. A page that says Michigan 'calls it spousal support' is half right. Second, Michigan does have a statutorily mandated formula in domestic relations, and it is not for spousal support: MCL 552.519(3)(a)(vi) directs the state court administrative bureau to develop 'A formula to be used in establishing and modifying a child support amount and health care obligation. The formula shall be based upon the needs of the child and the actual resources of each parent.' No comparable statutory direction exists for spousal support anywhere in Chapter 552. The spousal-support software widely used in Michigan practice is a commercial product, not a state-issued guideline, and nothing in the MCL gives any such output legal effect. Source: https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=mcl-552-519

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, Michigan’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: MCL 206.12(3) (definition of ‘Internal revenue code’); Michigan Income Tax Act of 1967 (MCL 206.1 et seq.) the state source

Authority: Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Pub. L. 115-97, section 11051, repealing Internal Revenue Code sections 71 and 215; see also IRS Publication 504.

Authority: Mich. Comp. Laws (MCL) 552.23 (award on judgment); MCL 552.13 (alimony during pendency; termination on remarriage); MCL 552.28 (revision or alteration). All are sections of the Revised Statutes of 1846, Ch. 84. — read it on Michigan’s own site. Checked 23 Aug 2026.

The other number that decides your budget

How Michigan calculates child support, and the overnight count that moves it more than income does.

Child support →

And the question underneath it

What Michigan presumes about custody, and what the judge has to weigh.

Custody →

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