Understanding and Calculating Alimony in Michigan

If you’re considering filing for divorce, or if your spouse has already filed, you're likely wondering how you can ease your financial worries. Michigan permits spouses to request spousal support (also called alimony) if the requesting spouse can demonstrate a financial need and the other party can afford to pay.

Spousal support is a payment from one spouse to the other during or after a divorce. The purpose of spousal support is to ensure that each spouse can meet financial needs during and after the divorce process. The amount, frequency, and duration of support will depend on your individual case. As with most issues in divorce, if you and your spouse agree on an amount and term for spousal support, the court will honor it if it’s not unfair to either party. (Mich. Comp. Laws § 552.23(1) (2026).)

Types of Support Available in Michigan

Michigan law recognizes two categories of spousal support with different legal consequences:

• periodic support, and
• support in gross.

If you qualify for support, the court will determine which kind fits your situation. (Bonfiglio v. Pring, 202 Mich. App. 61 (1993).)

Periodic support is the most common type of support in Michigan. A judge can award it for a short, defined period (often called "rehabilitative support") or without a fixed end date (so-called "permanent support"). Rehabilitative support is designed to help a spouse who is capable of becoming self-supporting, but needs some time to develop job skills or finish a degree. Permanent support is less common and is generally awarded for long marriages where the recipient spouse can't become financially independent because of age, health, or disability. Despite the name, both types of periodic support—permanent and rehabilitative support—can typically be modified if circumstances change.

Support in gross is a specific amount of support paid either as one lump sum or in fixed installments. The main advantage of this type of payment is its finality. Both parties know exactly how much they are paying or receiving.

A judge may also award temporary support during the divorce process. Either party can request temporary support when filing for divorce, but the court will only award it if it’s appropriate. Temporary support can take the form of “status quo” payments. For example, if your spouse has always paid the mortgage, utility bills, and car payments, the judge may order that your spouse continue making those payments throughout the divorce process. Or the judge may also award temporary support in addition to the status quo payments if there’s a need and a significant discrepancy in income. Temporary support and status quo orders typically end when the judge finalizes the divorce and creates a new support order. (Mich. Comp. Laws § 552.13 (2026).)

Learn more about the different types of alimony.

Who Qualifies for Spousal Support?

In Michigan, either spouse can ask for spousal support in a divorce. You need to formally request spousal support before your divorce judgment is entered, or you risk losing the right to seek it later. (Michigan Court Rule 3.206(A)(5) (2026).)

It’s a common misconception that you must be married for at least 10 years before the court will award support. While judges are more likely to award support in long-term marriages, there's no minimum length of marriage required. The court will award alimony to any qualifying spouse, regardless of how long the couple was married.

What Factors Does the Judge Consider?

Unlike child support calculations, Michigan has no set formula for determining the amount or duration of spousal support. Instead, judges weigh the factors outlined by the Michigan Court of Appeals in Thames v. Thames, 191 Mich. App. 299 (1991), including:

• the past relations and conduct of the parties
• the length of the marriage
• each spouse’s ability to work
• the source and amount of property awarded to each party
• the age of each party
• the ability of the parties to pay alimony
• the present situation of the parties
• the needs of the parties
• the parties' health
• the prior standard of living and whether either supports other dependents
• each party’s contribution to the joint estate, and
• general principles of equity.

Because both spouses' income drives the alimony amount, a judge typically aims to award enough for the receiving spouse to maintain a home and a reasonable standard of living. A judge may also award attorneys' fees that the receiving spouse already paid.

There’s no official formula for calculating alimony, but some judges use unofficial estimating software, sometimes called the "Michigan Spousal Support Prognosticator," as a rough starting point alongside the Thames factors. Judges aren't bound by these estimates and retain broad discretion over the final order.

Does Adultery Affect Alimony in Michigan?

Michigan is a no-fault divorce state, so you don't need to prove that your spouse did anything wrong to get divorced. You only need to show that your marriage has broken down to the point that there's no reasonable chance you can save it. (Mich. Comp. Laws § 552.6(1) (2026).)

But "no-fault" for purposes of getting a divorce doesn't mean fault is irrelevant to spousal support. As discussed above, one of the Thames factors judges weigh when deciding alimony is the past relations and conduct of the parties. So if your spouse's affair played a role in ending your marriage, a judge can factor that into the alimony decision, even though it wasn't the legal basis for the divorce itself.

Keep in mind that fault is just one factor among many the judge will consider. Michigan judges tend to focus on the parties' financial needs and ability to pay. But if you can show that the infidelity caused financial harm (for example, your spouse spent marital funds on the affair partner), a judge can take that harm into account when deciding how much alimony to award.

Interestingly, Michigan is one of the few states where adultery is still a crime, though prosecutors essentially never bring these charges, and a criminal case for adultery has no bearing on how alimony gets decided in a divorce. (Mich. Comp. Laws §§ 750.29, 750.30 (2026).)

How Do I Pay Spousal Support?

In most cases, a judge will issue an income withholding order to the employer of the paying spouse along with the final judgment of divorce. Once the employer receives the order, the alimony payments are withheld from the paying spouse’s paycheck and sent to the Michigan State Disbursement Unit, a state clearinghouse that then forwards the funds to the recipient spouse, typically by direct deposit or debit card.

In Michigan, the Friend of the Court (FOC), part of the family division of the circuit court, monitors compliance with child support and spousal support orders. If the paying spouse stops making payments, the recipient can ask the FOC for help or file a Motion and Order to Show Cause with the court directly. If the court finds a violation, it can hold the paying spouse in contempt, which may lead to fines or jail time.

In some cases (involving no minor children or domestic violence), couples can opt out of FOC services. In opt-out cases, the spouses are solely responsible for sending and receiving payments themselves. If you opt out, you may find it more complicated to enforce the judgment later.

Modifying or Terminating Spousal Support

The obligation to pay support generally ends when either spouse dies. It may also end when the recipient spouse remarries, but it doesn't end automatically. The paying spouse would have to ask a judge to terminate it, unless the judgment says otherwise. (Mich. Comp. Laws § 552.13(2) (2026); Ackerman v. Ackerman, 163 Mich. App. 796 (1987).)

Courts understand that circumstances change, so if you can prove a significant change of circumstances since the last order, you may ask the court to modify your current order. A change in circumstances to warrant modification may include:

• the recipient spouse cohabiting with a new partner (not enough by itself)
• fraud or unilateral mistake
• a change in need of the parties, or
• a difference in the payer’s ability to pay.

(Mich. Comp. Laws § 552.28 (2026).)

Taxes and Alimony

It’s no surprise that paying spousal support can sometimes be a hard pill to swallow. In divorces finalized before December 31, 2018, tax law allowed the paying spouse to deduct alimony payments and required the recipient spouse to report the payments as income.

In 2017, Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), changing how alimony is treated for tax purposes. Paying spouses are no longer able to deduct alimony payments, and recipient spouses are no longer required to report the payments as income.

Learn more about alimony tax rules.