Alimony in Ohio - The Cusp

Does Ohio have an alimony formula?

No. The judge decides it on the factors.

No percentages anywhere in the section. The standard is 'reasonable spousal support' after fourteen factors.

Use the state’s own words

Ohio calls it spousal support, and the statute defines it. R.C. 3105.18(A), verbatim: 'As used in this section, "spousal support" means any payment or payments to be made to a spouse or former spouse, or to a third party for the benefit of a spouse or a former spouse, that is both for sustenance and for support of the spouse or former spouse. "Spousal support" does not include any payment made to a spouse or former spouse, or to a third party for the benefit of a spouse or former spouse, that is made as part of a division or distribution of property or a distributive award under section 3105.171 of the Revised Code.' 'Alimony' survives in the chapter caption ('Divorce, Alimony, Annulment, Dissolution Of Marriage') and in the transitional language of R.C. 3105.18(E) and (G), which distinguish orders entered before 1 January 1991 (alimony) from those entered on or after that date (spousal support).. 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

Ohio Rev. Code s. 3105.18 (Awarding spousal support; modification of spousal support), divisions (A) definition, (B) power and termination on death, (C)(1) fourteen factors, (C)(2) equal-contribution rule, (D) legal separation, (E) reservation of jurisdiction, (F) change of circumstances, (G) contempt costs. The page states the current version as effective 22 March 2013, latest legislation House Bill 461 of the 129th General Assembly. — the factorsR.C. 3105.18(C)(1), verbatim: 'In determining whether spousal support is appropriate and reasonable, and in determining the nature, amount, and terms of payment, and duration of spousal support, which is payable either in gross or in installments, the court shall consider all of the following factors: (a) The income of the parties, from all sources, including, but not limited to, income derived from property divided, disbursed, or distributed under section 3105.171 of the Revised Code; (b) The relative earning abilities of the parties; (c) The ages and the physical, mental, and emotional conditions of the parties; (d) The retirement benefits of the parties; (e) The duration of the marriage; (f) The extent to which it would be inappropriate for a party, because that party will be custodian of a minor child of the marriage, to seek employment outside the home; (g) The standard of living of the parties established during the marriage; (h) The relative extent of education of the parties; (i) The relative assets and liabilities of the parties, including but not limited to any court-ordered payments by the parties; (j) The contribution of each party to the education, training, or earning ability of the other party, including, but not limited to, any party's contribution to the acquisition of a professional degree of the other party; (k) The time and expense necessary for the spouse who is seeking spousal support to acquire education, training, or job experience so that the spouse will be qualified to obtain appropriate employment, provided the education, training, or job experience, and employment is, in fact, sought; (l) The tax consequences, for each party, of an award of spousal support; (m) The lost income production capacity of either party that resulted from that party's marital responsibilities; (n) Any other factor that the court expressly finds to be relevant and equitable.' Fourteen factors, and the verb is 'shall consider all of the following'. One further instruction constrains how the court reads them. R.C. 3105.18(C)(2), verbatim: 'In determining whether spousal support is reasonable and in determining the amount and terms of payment of spousal support, each party shall be considered to have contributed equally to the production of marital income.' Source: https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-3105.18

How long it lasts

Duration

None. R.C. 3105.18 sets no bracket, presumption, cap or schedule tied to the length of the marriage. Duration is one of the things the fourteen factors govern: the chapeau to (C)(1) covers 'the nature, amount, and terms of payment, and duration of spousal support', and the duration of the marriage is factor (e) within that list. There is no provision requiring the order to state an end date, no presumption that support ends when it has run for half the marriage, and no outside limit. The only durational rule stated anywhere in the section is the death provision in division (B). Source: https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-3105.18

Does behavior matter?

Marital misconduct

The statute is silent, and its silence is pointed. None of the fourteen factors in R.C. 3105.18(C)(1) names conduct, fault, adultery or misconduct, and factor (n), 'Any other factor that the court expressly finds to be relevant and equitable', neither authorizes nor forecloses it. Ohio has not abolished fault: R.C. 3105.01 lists causes for divorce and division (C) is 'Adultery'. So the same chapter recognizes adultery as a ground for the divorce and omits it from the support factors. Contrast the property statute, which does name a kind of misconduct and confines it to money. R.C. 3105.171(E)(4), verbatim: 'If a spouse has engaged in financial misconduct, including, but not limited to, the dissipation, destruction, concealment, nondisclosure, or fraudulent disposition of assets, the court may compensate the offended spouse with a distributive award or with a greater award of marital property.' The remedy there is a property remedy, not a support remedy, and by R.C. 3105.18(A) a distributive award is expressly not spousal support. Whether an Ohio court may weigh marital fault in setting spousal support under factor (n) is a question the statute does not answer; no Ohio appellate decision was read from a primary source. Sources: https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-3105.18, https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-3105.171 and https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-3105.01

When it ends, and when it can change

What brings it to an end

One trigger, and it is a default rather than a rule. R.C. 3105.18(B), final sentence, verbatim: 'Any award of spousal support made under this section shall terminate upon the death of either party, unless the order containing the award expressly provides otherwise.' That is the whole of it. There is no statutory termination on the payee's remarriage and none on cohabitation; the words 'remarriage', 'remarries' and 'cohabitation' do not appear in R.C. 3105.18. DIVERGENCE FLAG. It is commonly said that alimony ends on remarriage everywhere. In Ohio the statute does not say so, and because of the reservation rule in division (E) a decree that neither ends support on remarriage nor reserves jurisdiction to modify may leave a court with no power to do anything about it. Source: https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-3105.18

Changing it later

Ohio inverts the ordinary rule: the court has no power to modify unless the decree gave it one. R.C. 3105.18(E), verbatim: 'If a continuing order for periodic payments of money as alimony is entered in a divorce or dissolution of marriage action that is determined on or after May 2, 1986, and before January 1, 1991, or if a continuing order for periodic payments of money as spousal support is entered in a divorce or dissolution of marriage action that is determined on or after January 1, 1991, the court that enters the decree of divorce or dissolution of marriage does not have jurisdiction to modify the amount or terms of the alimony or spousal support unless the court determines that the circumstances of either party have changed and unless one of the following applies: (1) In the case of a divorce, the decree or a separation agreement of the parties to the divorce that is incorporated into the decree contains a provision specifically authorizing the court to modify the amount or terms of alimony or spousal support. (2) In the case of a dissolution of marriage, the separation agreement that is approved by the court and incorporated into the decree contains a provision specifically authorizing the court to modify the amount or terms of alimony or spousal support.' Both conditions must be met: a change of circumstances AND an express reservation in the decree or the incorporated agreement. Silence in the decree is fatal, and it is fatal permanently. Where jurisdiction was reserved, the change-of-circumstances test is defined broadly. R.C. 3105.18(F)(1), verbatim: 'For purposes of divisions (D) and (E) of this section and subject to division (F)(2) of this section, a change in the circumstances of a party includes, but is not limited to, any increase or involuntary decrease in the party's wages, salary, bonuses, living expenses, or medical expenses, or other changed circumstances so long as both of the following apply: (a) The change in circumstances is substantial and makes the existing award no longer reasonable and appropriate. (b) The change in circumstances was not taken into account by the parties or the court as a basis for the existing award when it was established or last modified, whether or not the change in circumstances was forseeable.' ('forseeable' is spelled that way in the enacted text on the Ohio Revised Code's own page.) Note the asymmetry in (F)(1): any increase counts, but only an involuntary decrease counts. And the court must respect the original purpose: R.C. 3105.18(F)(2), verbatim: 'In determining whether to modify an existing order for spousal support, the court shall consider any purpose expressed in the initial order or award and enforce any voluntary agreement of the parties. Absent an agreement of the parties, the court shall not modify the continuing jurisdiction of the court as contained in the original decree.' Legal separation is treated differently: R.C. 3105.18(D), verbatim: 'In an action brought solely for an order for legal separation under section 3105.17 of the Revised Code, any continuing order for periodic payments of money entered pursuant to this section is subject to further order of the court upon changed circumstances of either party.' There, no reservation is needed. Source: https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-3105.18

Worth knowing about Ohio

Four things. First, division (E) is the single most consequential drafting trap in the states read in this series. An Ohio decree that says nothing about modification is not merely hard to change; the court that entered it 'does not have jurisdiction' to change it, however extreme the later change in either party's circumstances. That rule applies to divorce decrees determined on or after 1 January 1991 and to alimony orders back to 2 May 1986, and division (F)(2) then forbids the court to modify its own reserved jurisdiction absent agreement. Second, the asymmetry in the definition of changed circumstances: 'any increase or involuntary decrease in the party's wages'. A payor whose income falls by choice has not, by the words of the statute, shown a change of circumstances; a payor whose income rises has. Third, R.C. 3105.18(C)(2) fixes by statute a conclusion that most states leave to argument: 'each party shall be considered to have contributed equally to the production of marital income.' Fourth, the section names no percentage and no dollar figure anywhere. Ohio's whole amount standard is the word 'reasonable' in division (B), read through fourteen factors. Spousal support software is widely used in Ohio practice, and some counties publish local guideline schedules, but nothing of the kind is authorized by R.C. 3105.18; no such local rule was read from a primary source.

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, Ohio’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: Ohio Rev. Code § 5747.01(A) (Ohio adjusted gross income means federal adjusted gross income, as defined and used in the Internal Revenue Code) and § 5747.01(H) (‘Internal Revenue Code’ means the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 … as amended) 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: Ohio Rev. Code s. 3105.18 (Awarding spousal support; modification of spousal support), divisions (A) definition, (B) power and termination on death, (C)(1) fourteen factors, (C)(2) equal-contribution rule, (D) legal separation, (E) reservation of jurisdiction, (F) change of circumstances, (G) contempt costs. The page states the current version as effective 22 March 2013, latest legislation House Bill 461 of the 129th General Assembly. — read it on Ohio’s own site. Checked 23 Aug 2026.

The other number that decides your budget

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

Child support →

And the question underneath it

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

Custody →

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Alimony in Ohio.