Can My Spouse Quit Working To Avoid Paying Alimony?

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Skip to content Home Alimony & Support Alimony FAQS Can my spouse quit working to avoid paying alimony?

How do some spouses avoid paying alimony? It’s actually much harder to achieve than one would think. Alimony is based off of the earnings of both spouses and the quality of life experienced during the marriage versus what the dependent spouse would earn independently. In short, the only way to pay less money on alimony is to earn less money overall.

A supporting spouse’s income at the time of the alimony trial is the relevant earnings criterion for the payor. This means that if you previously had a stable income during the marriage but fell into unemployment or other similar circumstances before the trial you would not be expected to pay the same alimony amount as you would if you were still employed. All of this, however, will be nullified if it appears there has been a deliberate attempt on the part of the supporting spouse to avoid financial responsibility by:

refusing to seek or accept gainful employment
willfully refusing to secure or take a job
deliberately not applying him/herself to a business
intentionally depressing income to an artificially low figure
intentionally leaving employment to go into another business

If any of the above is found to be true, alimony will not be awarded or will be awarded in a significantly smaller dollar amount.

Lee Rosen

Lee is the founder of Rosen Law Firm and, while retired, still lives on through this website, a huge repository of information to help educate people about family law. It demystifies the divorce process, sharing the secrets and information that other lawyers normally try to keep hidden. Today, this website contains a vast assortment of webinars, legal forms, statutes, Q&As with lawyers, audio and video courses, articles, and lots more.