The rest of what we have written about Michigan. Every figure is quoted from Michigan’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.
Dividing property and money in a Michigan divorce
The money picture for a divorce in Michigan: how property gets divided, what Michigan 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 Michigan’s own income tax follows the federal rule on alimony.
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Every claim is traced to Michigan’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.
The short version6 points · tap one to jump to it
- Does Michigan 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.
- How property is divided — Michigan is an equitable distribution state.
- Alimony (statute also uses 'spousal support') — Michigan calls it alimony (statute also uses 'spousal support').
- Child support — Michigan uses the income shares model — both parents’ incomes go into the calculation, and the result is apportioned between you.
- Who pays for the lawyers — A fee award that only arrives at final judgment is close to worthless to someone who could not afford a lawyer during the case.
- The thing worth knowing about Michigan
In this subject 8
Does Michigan follow the federal alimony rule?
The short version6 points · tap one to jump to it
- Does Michigan 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.
- How property is divided — Michigan is an equitable distribution state.
- Alimony (statute also uses 'spousal support') — Michigan calls it alimony (statute also uses 'spousal support').
- Child support — Michigan uses the income shares model — both parents’ incomes go into the calculation, and the result is apportioned between you.
- Who pays for the lawyers — A fee award that only arrives at final judgment is close to worthless to someone who could not afford a lawyer during the case.
- The thing worth knowing about Michigan
In this subject 8
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.
Michigan’s Income Tax Act defines ‘Internal revenue code’ as the IRC of 1986 ‘in effect on January 1, 2025 or, at the option of the taxpayer, in effect for the tax year’ (MCL 206.12(3)), and defines Michigan taxable income by starting from federal adjusted gross income/taxable income. Because that reference date (and the elective current-year option) both post-date the TCJA’s repeal of IRC §§71/215 for post-2018 instruments, the federal income figure Michigan imports already excludes alimony from income and disallows the deduction, so Michigan conforms to the post-TCJA federal treatment.
So the federal answer is your answer: post-2018 instruments, no deduction and no inclusion, on either return.
Source: MCL 206.12(3) (definition of ‘Internal revenue code’); Michigan Income Tax Act of 1967 (MCL 206.1 et seq.) · source
Conformity: static: January 1, 2025 (or, at the taxpayer’s election, the IRC in effect for the tax year) — post-dates the TCJA repeal of the alimony provisions, so effectively conforms
Nationally: 37 states follow the federal rule, 9 have no income tax, and 4 are decoupled. The full fifty-state table and what each decoupled state does differently.
How property is divided
Michigan 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.
the court may make a further judgment for restoring to either party the whole, or such parts as it shall deem just and reasonable, of the real and personal estate that shall have come to either party by reason of the marriage
Source: MCL 552.19
Alimony (statute also uses ‘spousal support’)
Michigan calls it alimony (statute also uses ‘spousal support’). 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.
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
Source: MCL 552.23
Child support
Michigan uses the income shares model — both parents’ incomes go into the calculation, and the result is apportioned between you.
Whichever model applies, this is the most predictable number in your case — there is a formula and a presumption that its output is correct. Deviating from it takes written findings. Run it early; it is free, and it anchors everything else.
Guideline: MCL 552.605; MCL 552.519 (Michigan Child Support Formula, promulgated by the State Friend of the Court Bureau)
Who pays for the lawyers
It may award costs against either party and award execution for the same, or it may direct such costs to be paid out of any property sequestered, or in the power of the court, or in the hands of a receiver.
Source: MCL 552.13(1)
the court may require either party…to pay any sums necessary to enable the adverse party to carry on or defend the action, during its pendency
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 Michigan, and who bears it.
The thing worth knowing about Michigan
Michigan’s spousal-support statute (MCL 552.23) has not been substantially rewritten since the 1940s and contains no durational or numeric guideline at all — the entire standard is ‘just and reasonable’ considering ‘the ability of either party to pay and the character and situation of the parties,’ leaving amount and duration almost entirely to judicial discretion guided by non-statutory case-law factors.