Alimony in Minnesota.
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 stateMinnesota
There is no arithmetic in Minnesota’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
Minnesota calls it spousal maintenance. Minn. Stat. 518.552 is captioned 'MAINTENANCE' and the operative noun throughout is 'maintenance'; subd. 6 and subd. 8 use the phrase 'spousal maintenance'. The word 'alimony' appears nowhere in the section. Effective 1 August 2024 the adjectives changed as well: the statute no longer speaks of 'temporary' and 'permanent' maintenance but of 'transitional' and 'indefinite' maintenance, and it converts pre-existing awards by operation of law.. 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. 'Temporary' and 'permanent' maintenance were renamed 'transitional' and 'indefinite' effective 1 August 2024; pre-existing awards are deemed converted.
The short version4 points · tap one to jump to it
- What the law actually says
- How long it lasts — An award of temporary maintenance issued before August 1, 2024, is deemed transitional maintenance.
- Does behavior matter? — Expressly barred, in the operative sentence of the amount provision.
- When it ends, and when it can change — Cohabitation is a separate matter and is not a termination trigger.
In this subject 4
What the law actually says
The short version4 points · tap one to jump to it
- What the law actually says
- How long it lasts — An award of temporary maintenance issued before August 1, 2024, is deemed transitional maintenance.
- Does behavior matter? — Expressly barred, in the operative sentence of the amount provision.
- When it ends, and when it can change — Cohabitation is a separate matter and is not a termination trigger.
In this subject 4
The power the court has
What the judge has to weigh
How long it lasts
Duration
Minn. Stat. s. 518.552, subd. 3, verbatim: '(a) A maintenance award may be transitional or indefinite. An award of temporary maintenance issued before August 1, 2024, is deemed transitional maintenance. An award of permanent maintenance issued before August 1, 2024, is deemed indefinite maintenance. Maintenance awarded during the pendency of an initial proceeding for dissolution or legal separation pursuant to section 518.131 is deemed temporary maintenance. (b) For purposes of this subdivision, "length of the marriage" means the period from the date of the marriage until the date of the commencement of the action. (c) The court must determine the duration of maintenance based on the length of the marriage as follows: (1) when the length of the marriage is less than five years, it is rebuttably presumed that no maintenance should be awarded; (2) when the length of the marriage is at least five years and less than 20 years, it is rebuttably presumed that transitional maintenance should be awarded with a duration of no longer than one-half the length of the marriage if the factors set forth in subdivision 1 support an award of maintenance; and (3) when the length of the marriage is 20 years or more, it is rebuttably presumed that indefinite maintenance should be awarded if the factors set forth in subdivision 1 support an award of maintenance.' Three brackets, all rebuttable. Note that the word 'temporary' now means only pendente lite maintenance under s. 518.131; it no longer means a fixed-term post-decree award.
Does behavior matter?
Marital misconduct
Expressly barred, in the operative sentence of the amount provision. Minn. Stat. s. 518.552, subd. 2: 'The maintenance order shall be in amounts and for periods of time, either transitional or indefinite, as the court deems just, without regard to marital misconduct, and after considering all relevant factors including …'. The bar is on the face of the statute and it governs both amount and duration, because the same sentence fixes both. The words 'fault', 'adultery' and 'misconduct' appear nowhere else in s. 518.552. Source: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/518.552
When it ends, and when it can change
What brings it to an end
Minn. Stat. s. 518.552, subd. 5a (added 2024), verbatim: 'Unless otherwise agreed in writing or expressly provided in the decree, the obligation to pay future maintenance is terminated upon the death of either party or the remarriage of the party receiving maintenance.' Termination is automatic on either event unless the decree says otherwise; no motion is required. Cohabitation is a separate matter and is not a termination trigger. Subd. 6(a), verbatim: 'Spousal maintenance may be modified pursuant to subdivision 5b based on the cohabitation by the maintenance obligee with another adult following dissolution of the marriage. The modification may consist of a reduction, suspension, reservation, or termination of maintenance. In determining if maintenance should be modified due to cohabitation, the court shall consider: (1) whether the obligee would marry the cohabitant but for the maintenance award; (2) the economic benefit the obligee derives from the cohabitation; (3) the length of the cohabitation and the likely future duration of the cohabitation; and (4) the economic impact on the obligee if maintenance is modified and the cohabitation ends.' Subd. 6(c) bars a cohabitation motion 'within one year of the date of entry of the decree of dissolution or legal separation that orders spousal maintenance' absent written agreement or a finding of extreme hardship. Retirement is also a modification ground only, not a termination trigger: subd. 7(a): 'If a party retires, spousal maintenance may be modified. The modification of maintenance may consist of a reduction, suspension, reservation, or termination of maintenance.' Source: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/518.552
Changing it later
Minn. Stat. s. 518.552, subd. 5b(b), verbatim: 'The terms of a maintenance order may be modified upon a showing of one or more of the following circumstances that make the terms of the existing order unreasonable and unfair: (1) substantially increased or decreased gross income of an obligor or obligee; (2) substantially increased or decreased need of an obligor or obligee; or (3) substantial changes in the federal or state tax laws that affect spousal maintenance.' Subd. 5b(c): 'Upon a motion to modify maintenance, including a motion to extend the duration of a maintenance award, the court shall apply, in addition to all other relevant factors, the factors for an award of maintenance under subdivisions 1 to 3 that exist at the time of the motion.' Subd. 5b(e): 'The court need not hold an evidentiary hearing on a motion to modify maintenance.' Modification may be made retroactive under subd. 5b(d), including 'from the date that the notice of the motion to modify was served on the responding party'. Modification may be barred by stipulation, but only on judicial findings. Subd. 5, verbatim: 'The parties may expressly preclude or limit modification of maintenance through a stipulation, if the court makes specific findings that the stipulation is fair and equitable, is supported by consideration described in the findings, and that full disclosure of each party's financial circumstances has occurred. The stipulation must be made a part of the judgment and decree or a post-decree stipulated order. The parties may restore the court's authority or jurisdiction to award or modify maintenance through a binding stipulation.' Source: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/518.552
Worth knowing about Minnesota
Four things. First, a drafting defect that matters. Subd. 3(c)(2) and (3) both condition the duration presumptions on 'the factors set forth in subdivision 1'. Subdivision 1 is captioned 'Grounds' and contains no factors; it contains the three threshold findings. The factors are in subdivision 2. The cross-reference is to the wrong subdivision, and it is in the enacted 2024 text on the Revisor's own page. Second, Minnesota makes a change in tax law an express modification ground, subd. 5b(b)(3), 'substantial changes in the federal or state tax laws that affect spousal maintenance'. Very few states name tax law in the statute at all; Minnesota names it as a standalone trigger. Third, the 2024 act converts existing awards by operation of law rather than by motion: an award of 'temporary' maintenance made before 1 August 2024 'is deemed transitional maintenance' and an award of 'permanent' maintenance 'is deemed indefinite maintenance'. A Minnesota decree entered before that date now uses vocabulary the statute no longer recognizes. Fourth, subd. 6(b) forbids modifying maintenance on the basis of cohabitation alone where a marriage between the obligee and the cohabitant would be prohibited under Minn. Stat. s. 517.03, subd. 1, clause (2) or (3), which is to say where the two could not lawfully marry each other.
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, Minnesota’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. Worth one more line, because it decides what happens if the federal rule ever changes: Minnesota does not adopt federal tax changes automatically. It uses the Internal Revenue Code as amended through 1 May 2026 (2026 Minn. Laws ch. 128, art. 1, § 3, signed 27 May 2026), and later federal changes do not apply until the legislature adopts them. The Revisor’s codified text still reads 1 May 2023 until the October compilation; the session law and the Department of Revenue both say 1 May 2026. The Revisor’s own history line confirms the subdivision was amended in the 2026 session and that the compilation is behind until October, which is the same mid-compilation gap that affected this state’s protective-order pages. The fifty-state table.
Source: Minn. Stat. § 290.01, subd. 19 (defining Minnesota taxable/net income by reference to federal taxable income) and subd. 31 (defining ‘Internal Revenue Code’) the state source
The other number that decides your budget
How Minnesota calculates child support, and the overnight count that moves it more than income does.
And the question underneath it
What Minnesota presumes about custody, and what the judge has to weigh.
The rest of what we have written about Minnesota. Every figure is quoted from Minnesota’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.