The rest of what we have written about Texas. Every figure is quoted from Texas’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.
Dividing property and money in a Texas divorce
The money picture for a divorce in Texas: how property gets divided, what Texas 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 Texas’s own income tax follows the federal rule on alimony.
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Every claim is traced to Texas’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 Texas 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.
Texas levies no individual income tax (a prohibition reinforced by the state constitution, Tex. Const. art. VIII, § 24, which bars a personal income tax without voter approval), so there is no state-level treatment of alimony/maintenance income to conform or decouple from the federal TCJA rule.
Source: Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, Texas Taxes overview (no individual income tax); Tex. Const. art. VIII, § 24 · source
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
Texas is a community property state. Property acquired during the marriage is generally owned by both of you, and the starting point is a division of that community estate rather than an open-ended fairness inquiry.
In a decree of divorce or annulment, the court shall order a division of the estate of the parties in a manner that the court deems just and right, having due regard for the rights of each party and any children of the marriage.
Source: Tex. Fam. Code § 7.001
Spousal maintenance
Texas calls it spousal maintenance. Using the state’s own word matters when you are searching for forms or reading a statute.
hybrid
the court may order maintenance for either spouse only if the spouse seeking maintenance will lack sufficient property… to provide for the spouse’s minimum reasonable needs and [meets an enumerated eligibility ground]
Source: Tex. Fam. Code §§ 8.051, 8.052, 8.054, 8.055
Child support
Texas uses the percentage of obligor income model — the calculation looks principally at the paying parent’s income.
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: Tex. Fam. Code § 154.125 (guideline schedule applies statutory percentages, e.g., 20% of obligor’s net resources for one child, to the obligor’s net resources up to the statutory cap)
How Texas calculates child support, in detail
Who pays for the lawyers
In a suit for dissolution of a marriage, the court may award reasonable and necessary attorney’s fees, court costs, and expenses. The court may order the fees, costs, expenses, and any postjudgment interest to be paid directly to the attorney.
Source: Tex. Fam. Code § 6.708(c)
While a suit for dissolution of a marriage is pending… the court may render an appropriate order… including an order directed to one or both parties: … (4) ordering payment of reasonable and necessary attorney’s fees, court costs, and expenses
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 Texas, and who bears it.
The thing worth knowing about Texas
Texas has one of the most restrictive spousal-maintenance regimes in the country: unlike most states’ open-ended factors tests, eligibility is gated to a short enumerated list of circumstances (Tex. Fam. Code § 8.051), the monthly amount is hard-capped at the lesser of $5,000 or 20% of the obligor’s average monthly gross income (§ 8.055), and, absent a qualifying disability, duration is capped on a sliding scale from 5 years (marriages under 10 years, family-violence eligibility) up to 10 years (marriages of 30+ years) under § 8.054.