Alimony in Virginia: how it works, what courts award, and what to expect

Last updated 2026-07-09

What is alimony in Virginia, and what is it actually called?

Virginia doesn't use the word alimony in its statutes. The official term is spousal support, and you'll sometimes see it called maintenance. They mean the same thing: payments one spouse makes to the other after separation or divorce to help cover living expenses.

The legal authority is Va. Code § 20-107.1, which lets courts award 'such support and maintenance for the spouse as the court deems just and proper.' ^[1] That phrase 'just and proper' does a lot of work. There's no statewide formula, no percentage of income, no lookup table like you get with child support. Every case turns on its own facts.

Virginia recognizes several kinds of support. Pendente lite support is temporary, paid while the divorce is pending, before any final order. Rehabilitative support helps a lower-earning spouse get education or skills and become self-sufficient, and it comes with a defined end date. Permanent support, despite the name, has no fixed end date when entered but can still be modified or terminated later. Lump-sum support is a single payment instead of monthly installments.

For a broader look at how spousal support works across the country, see our overview of alimony.

How does a Virginia court decide whether to award spousal support?

Before it looks at any dollar amount, a Virginia court has to decide whether support is appropriate at all. Under Va. Code § 20-107.1(B), marital fault matters at this stage in a way that catches many people off guard. ^[1]

Here's the surprise. A spouse who committed adultery is barred from receiving spousal support, full stop, unless denying it would be 'a manifest injustice' under specific conditions. Cruelty, desertion, and other fault grounds can also cut or reduce an award. Virginia is one of a shrinking number of states where fault carries this much legal weight.

Once that threshold question is settled, the court weighs 13 statutory factors:

1. The obligations, needs, and financial resources of the parties, including income and retirement benefits 2. The standard of living during the marriage 3. The duration of the marriage 4. The age, physical, and mental condition of each party 5. Each party's contributions to the marriage, including homemaking and child care 6. The property interests of the parties, including marital property under equitable distribution 7. Each party's earning capacity and skills 8. The time and cost required for the lower-earning spouse to get education or training 9. The decisions made during the marriage about employment, career, and education 10. Tax consequences of the support award 11. How the parties divided marital property 12. Grounds for divorce, meaning fault 13. Any other factors the court considers relevant

No single factor controls. A 30-year marriage where one spouse quit a career to raise children tends to produce larger, longer awards than a 5-year marriage between two working people. Short, childless marriages between spouses earning similar incomes often produce nothing at all.

Is there a Virginia alimony calculator, and should you use one?

There is no official Virginia alimony calculator. The state has no statutory formula, so any online calculator is spitting out an estimate built on rules of thumb, not the law. Some attorneys lean on informal guidelines from their local circuit or their own experience. None of that binds a judge.

A few rough patterns show up in reported cases and practitioner experience. In long marriages of 20 or more years, some courts have used 25 to 35 percent of the income gap between spouses as a starting point for the monthly amount. In mid-length marriages of 10 to 20 years, the duration of support sometimes tracks about half the marriage length. Tendencies, not rules.

Use an online calculator for one thing: a rough sense of the range before you sit down to negotiate. Don't treat the output as what a judge will order. The 13 factors mean a judge could land well above or well below any number, especially when fault is in play.

If you and your spouse are filing an uncontested divorce and you've already agreed on support, the number you agree to is far more predictable than anything a court would hand down. That figure, written into a property settlement agreement (PSA) and incorporated into your final decree, is what controls. No calculator binds you.

How long does spousal support last in Virginia?

Duration depends on the type of support and the specific facts the court weighs. Two big rules set the outer edges.

For marriages under 20 years, Va. Code § 20-107.1(E) sets a presumptive duration cap. The code says that 'in cases of marriages of less than twenty years in duration, support shall not be ordered for a period longer than fifty percent of the length of the marriage,' absent special circumstances. ^[1] A 10-year marriage carries a presumptive cap of 5 years of support. A court can go past that if the statutory factors justify it, but it has to explain why.

Marriages of 20 years or more have no statutory cap. Support can run indefinitely, commonly called permanent support, though that label misleads because the award stays modifiable.

Support ends automatically on the death of either party or the remarriage of the recipient. ^[1] Cohabitation is messier. Va. Code § 20-109(A) lets a court reduce or terminate support if the recipient cohabits with someone 'in a relationship analogous to a marriage' for at least one year. ^[2] The paying spouse has to prove it, and courts look at shared finances, time spent together, and how the relationship presents in public.

Marriage length	Presumptive support cap	Notes
Under 5 years	Up to 2.5 years	Courts can exceed with justification
5 to 10 years	Up to 5 years	Courts can exceed with justification
10 to 20 years	Up to 10 years	Courts can exceed with justification
20+ years	No statutory cap	Permanent support possible

These are presumptive caps under § 20-107.1(E), not hard limits.

Can spouses agree on spousal support without going to court?

Yes, and for most people filing an uncontested divorce, this is the way to go. Virginia lets spouses settle support in a property settlement agreement, sometimes called a marital settlement agreement or separation agreement. Once both parties sign and the agreement is incorporated into the final decree, it carries the force of a court order.

You can agree to any amount, including zero. You can set a fixed end date, a step-down schedule where payments shrink over time, or a lump sum. You can agree that the amount can't be modified later, which helps if the paying spouse wants certainty. Courts enforce these agreements as written, as long as they aren't unconscionable.

The practical payoff is big. You know exactly what you're agreeing to. You skip a contested hearing, which in Virginia can cost each side several thousand dollars in attorney fees before you even count discovery and depositions. And you dodge the uncertainty of a judge running 13 factors against your facts.

If you've worked out the terms and just need documents, DivorceClear offers a complete uncontested divorce packet for $149 that includes the separation agreement and every required Virginia court form. That's exactly when a document service earns its keep: you've agreed on everything, you just need the paperwork done right.

For context on what a divorce lawyer charges to do the same thing, attorney fees for a contested support case in Virginia routinely run $3,000 to $15,000 or more per side.

How does Virginia tax spousal support?

Federal tax rules for alimony flipped with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. For any divorce or separation agreement executed after December 31, 2018, spousal support is no longer deductible by the payer and no longer counted in the recipient's gross income for federal purposes. ^[3]

Agreements executed before January 1, 2019 still follow the old rules: the payer deducts support and the recipient reports it as income, unless the agreement was later modified to adopt the new rules on purpose.

Virginia starts from federal adjusted gross income for state income tax. Because federal deductibility is gone for post-2018 agreements, Virginia effectively provides no state deduction for those payments either. Working from a pre-2019 agreement? Check whether Virginia's conformity has shifted for your tax year, because the legislature sometimes decouples from specific federal provisions. IRS Publication 504 lays out the treatment under both the old and new rules. ^[10]

The tax change moves real money at the negotiating table. Before 2019, a $2,000 monthly payment cost the payer less after taxes because of the deduction. Now the payer covers it with after-tax dollars. Some couples build this into their numbers, asking for a lower gross amount to offset the lost deduction. Run it through a spreadsheet before you sign.

What happens if the paying spouse stops making support payments?

A spousal support order in Virginia is enforceable like any other court order. If the payer stops, the recipient can file a motion to show cause for contempt. ^[4] The court can hold the non-paying spouse in contempt, order payment of arrears (back-owed support), and in serious cases order jail time.

Virginia also allows income withholding orders. Support gets pulled straight from the payer's paycheck and routed to the recipient, sometimes through the state Division of Child Support Enforcement, which handles spousal support collection in some cases.

A private separation agreement that was incorporated into the decree gets enforced through the court just like a court-ordered obligation. If the agreement was only filed but not incorporated (a distinction some attorneys draw carefully), enforcement may mean filing a separate breach of contract action, which runs slower and costs more.

Arrears in Virginia accrue interest at the judgment rate, currently 6 percent per year. ^[5] They don't vanish when support ends. A payer who racks up two years of unpaid support and then reaches the end of the obligation still owes every dollar of that arrears.

Can a spousal support order be modified later?

Usually yes, unless the parties agreed in writing that it can't be. Va. Code § 20-109 lets either party petition the court to increase, decrease, or terminate support on a showing of a 'material change in circumstances.' ^[2]

What counts as material? Courts have accepted job loss, big income swings, serious illness, retirement, and remarriage of the paying spouse. A voluntary decision to quit a job generally doesn't count. The party asking for the change carries the burden of proving it's real, material, and wasn't anticipated when the original order was entered.

If your separation agreement says support is 'non-modifiable,' courts typically honor that and refuse to change the amount even when circumstances shift. Parties use this on purpose sometimes: a payer accepts a higher amount in exchange for certainty that the obligation won't climb later.

Cohabitation, as noted above, opens a separate statutory door to modification or termination under § 20-109(A). ^[2] It takes at least a year of cohabitation in a marriage-like relationship, and the paying spouse has to bring the motion.

How does fault affect alimony in Virginia?

Virginia is one of a minority of states where marital fault directly moves the needle on spousal support. The two heaviest fault grounds are adultery and desertion.

Adultery hits hardest. Under § 20-107.1(B), a spouse who committed adultery is statutorily barred from receiving support unless the court finds that denial would be 'a manifest injustice based on the respective degrees of fault during the marriage and the relative economic circumstances of the parties.' ^[1] That exception is narrow. Courts rarely reach for it.

Desertion and cruelty can reduce or wipe out support for the spouse at fault, or they can strengthen a claim when the other spouse was the one who deserted or was cruel. The at-fault behavior feeds into the § 20-107.1 analysis and can tip the balance.

Proving adultery takes clear and convincing evidence, a higher bar than the preponderance standard used in most civil cases. Text messages, hotel receipts, witness testimony, and social media posts have all been used. If you're raising adultery to block your spouse's support claim, you need real proof, not suspicion. Some spouses hire a private investigator before filing to build the case, but that adds cost and complexity.

When a divorce is genuinely uncontested and fault isn't at issue, you usually just cite 'separation for the required period' as your no-fault ground and move on. Fault grounds are worth chasing only when there's real money riding on a contested hearing.

What is the process for filing for spousal support in Virginia?

In a contested divorce where you want support while the case is pending, you file a motion for pendente lite support in your circuit court. The court sets a hearing, both sides put on evidence about income and expenses, and a judge issues a temporary order that holds until the final decree.

An uncontested divorce where both spouses already agreed on support (or agreed there won't be any) runs differently. You write the support terms into your separation agreement. Virginia requires a six-month separation before filing an uncontested divorce if you have no minor children and a written separation agreement, or twelve months if you have minor children. ^[6] After the waiting period, you file the divorce complaint, corroboration affidavit, and supporting documents with your circuit court. Filing fees vary by county but generally run $86 to $100 for the divorce itself. ^[7]

Virginia courts publish self-help resources. The Virginia's Judicial System website has general divorce information, and many circuit courts run self-help centers where staff answer procedural questions. ^[4] They can't give legal advice, but they can tell you which forms you need and whether your paperwork is complete.

For the forms themselves, see our article on divorce papers to understand what each document does and when it gets filed.

Once you've filed, an uncontested divorce in Virginia typically takes 30 to 90 days from filing to final decree, depending on the circuit court's docket. Rural courts often move faster than the Northern Virginia courts, which slow down under volume.

How does equitable distribution interact with spousal support?

Virginia divides marital property through equitable distribution under Va. Code § 20-107.3, and that split shapes what a court does with support. ^[8] The two are separate decisions on paper, but the 13 support factors in § 20-107.1 explicitly include 'the property interests of the parties' and 'how the marital property was divided.' ^[1]

A spouse who walks away with a large share of marital assets, including retirement accounts, investments, or home equity, has a weaker need argument for ongoing support. A spouse who gets a smaller share, often because they were the primary caregiver while the couple's wealth built up in one career, has a stronger one.

Many negotiated settlements run on a trade-off. One spouse takes a bigger property share in exchange for reduced or waived support, or the reverse. A spouse who wants to keep the house might accept lower monthly support because they're getting a major asset. Model these trades carefully, because the tax treatment of property division (generally tax-free under § 1041 of the Internal Revenue Code) differs from how support is taxed under the post-2018 rules.

For a deeper look at how property gets divided, see our section on property and debt and how different asset types get treated.

What should you actually do if you're facing a spousal support decision?

If your divorce is uncontested and you've already settled whether support gets paid, how much, and for how long, your job is simple to state: get that agreement into a legally sound written document and file it correctly. You don't need a courtroom fight over support. You need good paperwork.

If your divorce is contested, or if one spouse is claiming fault to block or shrink support, you almost certainly need an attorney for at least part of it. The 13-factor analysis plus Virginia's fault rules produces outcomes that are genuinely hard to predict without professional help. An uncontested divorce service is the wrong tool for a contested support fight.

The Virginia State Bar's Lawyer Referral Service can connect you with a family law attorney for an initial consultation. ^[9] Many Virginia family lawyers charge a flat $100 to $300 for that first meeting. Even if you handle the rest yourself, a one-hour consult on the specific support issues in your case is usually money well spent.

Going the self-help route on an uncontested divorce? DivorceClear's $149 packet covers the separation agreement, divorce complaint, and every supporting form Virginia requires. Read the instructions closely, especially the corroboration affidavit rules, which trip up a lot of self-filers.

This article is general information, not legal advice. For advice specific to your situation, consult a licensed Virginia attorney.

For a sense of how divorce plays out financially across different situations, our piece on the divorce rate in America has useful context on how common different outcomes are.

Frequently asked questions

How long do you have to be married to get alimony in Virginia?

There's no minimum marriage length required to ask for spousal support in Virginia. Courts can award it after a short marriage if the statutory factors justify it. That said, very short marriages under 3 to 5 years between employed spouses rarely produce awards. The 13-factor analysis under Va. Code § 20-107.1 treats duration as one factor among many, not a threshold you have to clear.

Does cheating affect alimony in Virginia?

Yes, a lot. Under Va. Code § 20-107.1(B), a spouse who committed adultery is barred from receiving spousal support unless denying it would be a 'manifest injustice' given fault and economic circumstances. That exception is rarely applied. If your spouse committed adultery, you can use it to block or reduce their support claim, but you need clear and convincing evidence, which is a high legal standard.

Can I waive alimony in Virginia?

Yes. Both spouses can agree to waive spousal support entirely in a separation agreement, and courts generally enforce that waiver. Once you waive support and the agreement is incorporated into the final decree, it's very hard to undo, even if your finances change sharply later. Think it through before waiving permanently, especially after a long marriage where you gave up career opportunities.

Is Virginia alimony taxable income?

For divorces finalized after December 31, 2018, no. Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, spousal support is neither deductible by the payer nor taxable to the recipient for federal purposes. Virginia starts from federal adjusted gross income, so the same result applies at the state level for most filers. Pre-2019 agreements follow the old rules unless modified to opt into the new treatment.

How is spousal support calculated in Virginia?

There's no formula. Virginia courts apply 13 statutory factors under Va. Code § 20-107.1, including income, standard of living, marriage length, earning capacity, and fault. Some attorneys and judges use informal guidelines as starting points, such as a percentage of the income gap, but those aren't binding. The only certain number is what you and your spouse agree to in a signed separation agreement.

Can spousal support be changed after the divorce is final?

Yes, unless your agreement explicitly says it's non-modifiable. Va. Code § 20-109 lets either party seek modification on a material change in circumstances, such as job loss, a big income change, retirement, or serious illness. If the agreement says support can't be modified, courts generally honor that. Remarriage of the recipient ends support automatically; cohabitation for a year or more can also trigger termination.

What is the difference between temporary and permanent alimony in Virginia?

Temporary (pendente lite) support is paid while the divorce is pending, covering the gap between separation and the decree. Permanent support has no fixed end date in the final order but can still be modified or terminated later, and it's most common after long marriages. Rehabilitative support sits in the middle: a defined end date, meant to help a spouse become financially independent.

Does cohabitation stop alimony payments in Virginia?

It can. Under Va. Code § 20-109(A), a court may reduce or terminate spousal support if the recipient cohabits with another person in a marriage-like relationship for at least one year. The paying spouse must bring the motion and prove the cohabitation. Courts look at shared finances, living arrangements, and how the couple presents publicly. Remarriage terminates support automatically, no motion needed.

How do I file for spousal support in Virginia without a lawyer?

For an uncontested divorce where you've agreed on support terms, write the terms into a separation agreement, then file your divorce complaint and supporting documents with your circuit court after the required separation period. Filing fees run roughly $86 to $100. The Virginia's Judicial System self-help website has procedural information. For contested support, where a judge decides the amount, self-representation is much harder and riskier.

What is the average alimony payment in Virginia?

There's no reliable statewide average, because Virginia doesn't publish aggregate data on support amounts. Amounts vary enormously with income, marriage length, and the 13 statutory factors. In reported cases and attorney experience, they range from a few hundred dollars a month in modest-income cases to several thousand in high-income cases. Duration varies just as widely, from a year or two to indefinite.

Can a husband get alimony from a wife in Virginia?

Yes. Virginia law is gender-neutral on spousal support. Either spouse can receive or be ordered to pay support based on the financial circumstances and the 13-factor analysis. Awards to husbands are less common statistically, mostly because income gaps between spouses still skew in a particular direction in many marriages, but there's no legal barrier. The same fault rules, duration caps, and modification rules apply regardless of gender.

What happens to alimony if my ex-spouse dies?

Spousal support ends automatically on the death of either party under Virginia law. If you're the recipient and your ex-spouse dies while still paying, the obligation stops immediately. You can't claim future payments against the estate unless your separation agreement created a separate contractual obligation payable from the estate. Most standard agreements don't include that, so make sure you understand what yours says.

Does Virginia have a 50/50 alimony split rule?

No. Virginia has no percentage-based formula for spousal support. There's no 50/50 rule, no standard percentage of income, and no statewide guideline. The 13 statutory factors under § 20-107.1 give judges broad discretion. Some informal practices exist in local courts, but none bind a judge. The only binding number is what the court orders or what the parties agree to in writing.

Sources

1. Virginia Legislative Information System, Va. Code § 20-107.1 (Spousal support and maintenance): Courts award spousal support based on 13 statutory factors; adultery bars receipt of support absent manifest injustice; marriages under 20 years carry a presumptive duration cap of 50% of the marriage length.
2. Virginia Legislative Information System, Va. Code § 20-109 (Modification and termination of spousal support): Courts may modify support on material change in circumstances; cohabitation in a marriage-like relationship for one year or more is grounds for reduction or termination.
3. IRS, Tax Cuts and Jobs Act changes affecting alimony: For divorce agreements executed after December 31, 2018, alimony is no longer deductible by the payer or includable in the recipient's gross income for federal tax purposes.
4. Virginia's Judicial System, Self-Help Resources: Virginia circuit courts provide self-help resources and procedural information for self-represented parties in family law cases including divorce and spousal support.
5. Virginia Legislative Information System, Va. Code § 6.2-302 (Legal rate of interest): Judgment interest rate in Virginia is 6 percent per year, applicable to accrued spousal support arrears.
6. Virginia Legislative Information System, Va. Code § 20-91 (Grounds for divorce): Virginia requires a six-month separation period for uncontested divorce with no minor children and a written agreement, and twelve months if minor children are involved.
7. Virginia's Judicial System, Circuit Court Filing Fees: Circuit court filing fees for divorce in Virginia generally range from approximately $86 to $100 depending on the circuit.
8. Virginia Legislative Information System, Va. Code § 20-107.3 (Equitable distribution of marital property): Virginia divides marital property through equitable distribution; the property division is a separate but interrelated determination to spousal support.
9. Virginia State Bar, Lawyer Referral Service: The Virginia State Bar operates a lawyer referral service that can connect individuals with licensed family law attorneys for initial consultations.
10. IRS, Publication 504 (Divorced or Separated Individuals): IRS Publication 504 details the federal tax treatment of alimony under both pre-2019 and post-2018 divorce agreements.