Alimony in Oregon.
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 stateOregon
No formula. The court 'shall designate one or more categories of spousal support and shall make findings of the relevant factors in the decision.'
Use the state’s own words
Oregon calls it spousal support, in three statutory categories that the court must name: transitional spousal support, compensatory spousal support and spousal maintenance. ORS 107.105(1)(d) requires the designation in terms: 'In making the spousal support order, the court shall designate one or more categories of spousal support and shall make findings of the relevant factors in the decision.' 'Alimony' is not the statutory word.. 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.
The short version4 points · tap one to jump to it
- What the law actually says
- How long it lasts — None. ORS 107.105(1)(d) sets no bracket, presumption, cap or schedule tied to the length of the marriage.
- Does behavior matter? — Expressly barred, and Oregon says so twice in the same section.
- When it ends, and when it can change — Death only, and by default.
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 — None. ORS 107.105(1)(d) sets no bracket, presumption, cap or schedule tied to the length of the marriage.
- Does behavior matter? — Expressly barred, and Oregon says so twice in the same section.
- When it ends, and when it can change — Death only, and by default.
In this subject 4
The power the court has
What the judge has to weigh
How long it lasts
Duration
None. ORS 107.105(1)(d) sets no bracket, presumption, cap or schedule tied to the length of the marriage. The duration of the marriage is the first factor in each of the three lists and nothing more. Spousal maintenance is expressly open-ended if the court so orders: subparagraph (C) authorizes it 'for either a specified or an indefinite period'. Transitional support is bounded by its purpose rather than by a period: it is available 'as needed for a party to attain education and training necessary to allow the party to prepare for reentry into the job market or for advancement therein'. There is one durational rule of a different kind, and it runs against the recipient. ORS 107.407, verbatim: 'If an individual has paid an amount of money in installments for more than 10 years for the support of a former spouse under a judgment of annulment or dissolution of marriage that ordered such payment, and when the former spouse has not made a reasonable effort during that period of time to become financially self-supporting and independent of the support provided under the judgment, the individual paying the support may petition the court that issued the judgment to set aside so much of the judgment as may provide for the support of the former spouse. The petition shall not be granted if spousal support was granted in the judgment in lieu of a share of property in order to provide the other spouse with a tax benefit.' Source: https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors107.html
Does behavior matter?
Marital misconduct
Expressly barred, and Oregon says so twice in the same section. ORS 107.036, verbatim: '(1) The doctrines of fault and of in pari delicto are abolished in suits for the annulment or dissolution of a marriage or for separation. (2) The court shall not receive evidence of specific acts of misconduct, excepting where child custody is an issue and such evidence is relevant to that issue, or excepting at a hearing when the court finds such evidence necessary to prove irreconcilable differences. (3) In dividing, awarding and distributing the real and personal property (or both) of the parties (or either of them) between the parties, or in making such property or any of it subject to a trust, and in fixing the amount and duration of the contribution one party is to make to the support of the other, the court shall not consider the fault, if any, of either of the parties in causing grounds for the annulment or dissolution of the marriage or for separation. (4) Where satisfactory proof of grounds for the annulment or dissolution of a marriage or for separation has been made, the court shall render a judgment for the annulment or dissolution of the marriage or for separation. A judgment of separation shall state the duration of the separation.' Subsection (2) is an evidentiary bar on receiving the proof at all, subject to two narrow exceptions; subsection (3) is a substantive bar on considering fault 'in fixing the amount and duration of the contribution one party is to make to the support of the other'. Oregon's is the most complete statutory exclusion of fault read in this series: Minnesota bars marital misconduct in the amount provision, but Oregon also bars the evidence coming in. Source: https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors107.html
When it ends, and when it can change
What brings it to an end
Death only, and by default. ORS 107.105(1)(d), verbatim: 'Unless otherwise expressly provided in the judgment and except for any unpaid balance of previously ordered spousal support, liability for the payment of spousal support shall terminate on the death of either party, and there shall be no liability for either the payment of spousal support or for any payment in cash or property as a substitute for the payment of spousal support after the death of either party.' There is no statutory termination on remarriage and none on cohabitation. Neither 'remarriage' nor 'remarries' appears anywhere in ORS chapter 107 in connection with spousal support, and the only occurrence of 'cohabit' in the chapter is in a provision about persons who are or have cohabited, not about ending support. Termination is therefore reached, if at all, through the modification power in ORS 107.135, and a termination so reached can be undone. ORS 107.136, verbatim: '(1) When a court has terminated the duty of spousal support under ORS 107.135, the court may reinstate the remaining duration and remaining amount of the support award if the moving party alleges and proves that: (a) The basis for the termination has ceased to exist; and (b) The reinstatement is just and equitable under all the circumstances.' The remaining duration and amount are defined by worked example in ORS 107.136(2), and subsection (3) provides that 'A motion for reinstatement of a spousal support award under this section must be brought within the remaining duration of the award or within 10 years after the entry of the judgment terminating the award, whichever is sooner.' Subsection (6): 'At any time, the parties may waive their rights under this section in writing, signed by both parties and referencing this section.' Pages that state as a general rule that alimony ends when the recipient remarries are stating something Oregon's statute does not say. Source: https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors107.html
Changing it later
ORS 107.135(1)(a) gives the power: the court may at any time after the judgment, on motion and notice, 'Set aside, alter or modify any portion of the judgment that provides for the appointment and duties of trustees, for the custody, parenting time, visitation, support and welfare of the minor children and the children attending school, as defined in ORS 107.108, including any health or life insurance provisions, for the support of a party or for life insurance under ORS 107.820 or 107.830'. The standard, and the exception that matters, are in ORS 107.135(3)(a), verbatim: 'A substantial change in economic circumstances of a party, which may include, but is not limited to, a substantial change in the cost of reasonable and necessary expenses to either party, is sufficient for the court to reconsider its order of support, except that an order of compensatory spousal support may only be modified upon a showing of an involuntary, extraordinary and unanticipated change in circumstances that reduces the earning capacity of the paying spouse.' Compensatory support is thus nearly fixed: three adjectives must all be satisfied, and the change must reduce the payer's earning capacity. Two further rules. ORS 107.135(3)(b), verbatim: 'If the judgment provided for a termination or reduction of spousal support at a designated age in anticipation of the commencement of pension, Social Security or other entitlement payments, and if the obligee is unable to obtain the anticipated entitlement payments, that inability is sufficient change in circumstances for the court to reconsider its order of support.' ORS 107.135(3)(c), verbatim: 'If Social Security is considered in lieu of spousal support or partial spousal support, the court shall determine the amount of Social Security the party is eligible to collect. The court shall take into consideration any pension, retirement or other funds available to either party to effect an equitable distribution between the parties and shall also take into consideration any reduction of entitlement caused by taking early retirement.' In deciding whether circumstances have changed, ORS 107.135(4)(a) directs the court or administrator to 'consider income opportunities and benefits of the respective parties from all sources', including 'The reasonable opportunity of each party, the obligor and obligee respectively, to acquire future income and assets', 'Retirement benefits available to the obligor and to the obligee', and 'Other benefits to which the obligor is entitled, such as travel benefits, recreational benefits and medical benefits, contrasted with benefits to which the obligee is similarly entitled.' And one specific ground: ORS 107.135(4)(b), verbatim: 'An obligee's conviction for the attempted murder or conspiracy to commit the murder of the obligor qualifies as a change in circumstances sufficient for reconsideration of support provisions.' Source: https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors107.html
Worth knowing about Oregon
Four things. First, the ten-year set-aside petition. ORS 107.407 and its procedure in ORS 107.412 let a payer who has paid for more than ten years petition to end support where the recipient 'has not made a reasonable effort during that period of time to become financially self-supporting', and ORS 107.412(2) makes the consequence mandatory on the finding: 'if the court finds that the party receiving support has not made a reasonable effort during the previous 10 years to become financially self-supporting and independent of the support provided under the judgment, the court shall order that support terminated.' The court must weigh the recipient's age, health, work experience and earning capacity, the ages, health and dependency conditions of the minor children, and 'Efforts made by the party during the previous 10 years to improve opportunities for gainful or improved employment including, but not limited to, attendance at any school, community college or university or attendance at courses of professional or technical training.' No other state read in this series puts a recipient's diligence on trial in this way. Second, compensatory spousal support has no close analogue elsewhere. It is not need-based at all: it is keyed to 'a significant financial or other contribution by one party to the education, training, vocational skills, career or earning capacity of the other party', and one of its factors is 'The extent to which the marital estate has already benefited from the contribution'. It is also the hardest award in Oregon to modify, by the express carve-out in ORS 107.135(3)(a). Third, the fault exclusion in ORS 107.036 is evidentiary as well as substantive; the court 'shall not receive evidence of specific acts of misconduct' outside two narrow exceptions. Fourth, Oregon has a legislative-findings section devoted to spousal support obligations. ORS 107.406, verbatim: '(1) The Legislative Assembly finds that it is in the best interests of a former spouse for whom a court has awarded spousal support, as well as the people of this state, that the spousal support obligations be fulfilled. (2) It is the policy of this state that a former spouse for whom a court has awarded spousal support must be supported by the other former spouse in accordance with the court's judgment.'
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, Oregon follows the federal treatment, so for a full-year Oregon resident the federal answer above is the whole answer — the federal deduction flows through on your federal adjusted gross income and, as the Department puts it, you “[d]on’t claim an additional deduction on your Oregon return.” Oregon’s conformity is split: rolling for the definition of taxable income, but fixed-date for everything else — 31 December 2023 for the 2025 tax year, moving to 31 December 2025 for tax years beginning on or after 1 January 2026.
Two Oregon wrinkles worth knowing before you rely on a number. First, the Department conditions the deduction on reciprocity in a way federal law does not: “The alimony you paid must be taxable income to your former spouse.” Read literally that is a problem for a post-2018 instrument, where the payment is taxable to nobody. Second, Oregon’s nonresident provision at ORS 316.130(2)(c) still defines “alimony or separate maintenance payment” by reference to Internal Revenue Code section 215, and denies the deduction where the payment is not includable under section 682 — and the 2017 Act made both of those inoperative for post-2018 instruments. Oregon has resolved that by rule. OAR 150-316-0195, “Alimony Deduction — for Part-Year and Nonresidents,” says that for a decree or separation agreement “entered into before January 1, 2019, this rule still applies unless the … agreement is modified after December 31, 2018, and expressly states that the alimony is not deductible to the payer or includible in the income of the recipient,” and that “[i]f the divorce decree or separation agreement is entered into after December 31, 2018 this rule will not apply.” So the old machinery survives for grandfathered instruments and switches off for newer ones.
And there are two more Oregon-only mechanics in that rule worth knowing if you have moved. A part-year resident may not deduct at all any alimony paid to an Oregon resident during the part of the year they were a nonresident. A nonresident’s deduction is prorated on the ratio of Oregon-source income to total income while a nonresident, computed before any alimony deduction — and alimony paid is “deductible in full once residency is established.” So the date you became an Oregon resident can change what a year’s payments are worth. Four states do not conform their state income tax to it — Arkansas, California, New Jersey and New York — so this is worth knowing rather than assuming. The fifty-state table.
Source: Oregon Department of Revenue, 2025 Publication OR-17 (alimony paid and alimony received; the December 31, 2023 conformity statement); ORS 316.012 and ORS 316.130(2)(c); and Oregon Laws 2026 ch. 142 (SB 1507) moving the fixed date to 31 December 2025 for tax years beginning on or after 1 January 2026. The reconciliation rule is OAR 150-316-0195 (Dept. of Revenue, ch. 150, div. 316), last amended by REV 36-2020 effective 1 January 2021 — read it on the Secretary of State’s rules site. Pointed out to us by the Oregon Department of Revenue in correspondence of 15 September 2026; corrected the same day. the state source Checked 15 Sep 2026.
The other number that decides your budget
How Oregon calculates child support, and the overnight count that moves it more than income does.
And the question underneath it
What Oregon presumes about custody, and what the judge has to weigh.
The rest of what we have written about Oregon. Every figure is quoted from Oregon’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.