Divorce money in South Carolina: property, support, legal fees and whether the state taxes alimony
The money picture for a divorce in South Carolina: how property gets divided, what South Carolina 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 South Carolina’s own income tax follows the federal rule on alimony.
See a different stateSouth Carolina
Every claim is traced to South Carolina’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.
Does South Carolina 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. Most people assume every state followed. Most did. Not all.
South Carolina defines ‘Internal Revenue Code’ for state income tax purposes as the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 ‘as amended through December 31, 2024’ — a static date the General Assembly updates annually, and already well after the TCJA’s December 22, 2017 enactment and its alimony change (effective for instruments executed/modified after Dec. 31, 2018). South Carolina’s tax code even specifically cross-references former ‘Internal Revenue Code Section 71 (Alimony and Separate Maintenance Payments)’ in its adjusted-gross-income conformity provision, without any South Carolina-specific override, so the current federal (post-TCJA) alimony treatment applies for South Carolina income tax purposes as well.
So the federal answer is your answer: post-2018 instruments, no deduction and no inclusion, on either return.
Source: S.C. Code Ann. § 12-6-40(A)(1)(a) (‘”Internal Revenue Code” means the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended through December 31, 2024’) and § 12-6-40(A)(2)(b) (referencing ‘Internal Revenue Code … Section[] … 71 (Alimony and Separate Maintenance Payments)’ in defining South Carolina adjusted gross income) · source
Conformity: static: December 31, 2024 (updated annually by the General Assembly; well after the Dec. 22, 2017 TCJA enactment, so federal alimony treatment carries through)
Nationally: 36 states follow the federal rule, 9 have no income tax, 4 are decoupled, and 1 — Maine — we could not establish. The full fifty-state table and what each decoupled state does differently.
How property is divided
South Carolina 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.
In a proceeding for divorce a vinculo matrimonii or separate support and maintenance … the court shall make a final equitable apportionment between the parties of the parties’ marital property upon request by either party in the pleadings.
Source: S.C. Code Ann. § 20-3-620(A)
Alimony (and ‘separate maintenance and support’)
South Carolina calls it alimony (and ‘separate maintenance and 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.
the court may grant alimony or separate maintenance and support in such amounts and for such term as the court considers appropriate as from the circumstances of the parties and the nature of case may be just, pendente lite, and permanently.
Source: S.C. Code Ann. § 20-3-130(A), (C)
Child support
South Carolina 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: S.C. Code Ann. § 63-17-470 (South Carolina Child Support Guidelines, based on combined parental gross income)
How South Carolina calculates child support, in detail
Who pays for the lawyers
The court, from time to time after considering the financial resources and marital fault of both parties, may order one party to pay a reasonable amount to the other for attorney fees, expert fees, investigation fees, costs, and suit money incurred in maintaining an action for divorce … including sums for services rendered and costs incurred before the commencement of the proceeding and after entry of judgment, pendente lite and permanently.
Source: S.C. Code Ann. § 20-3-130(H)
the court … may order one party to pay a reasonable amount to the other for attorney fees, expert fees, investigation fees, costs, and suit money … pendente lite and permanently.
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 South Carolina, and who bears it.
The thing worth knowing about South Carolina
South Carolina statutorily bars any alimony award to a spouse who commits adultery before a settlement agreement is signed or a permanent separate-maintenance order is entered (S.C. Code Ann. § 20-3-130(A)) — an absolute, fault-based forfeiture rule rather than merely one factor among many, and the statute separately enumerates five distinct named categories of alimony (periodic, lump-sum, rehabilitative, reimbursement, and separate maintenance and support), each with its own default modifiability and termination rules.