Alimony in North Carolina

FAQ

Spousal support, commonly known as alimony, stands for payments that one spouse makes to another after filing for divorce. Alimony can be paid at once or on an ongoing basis. In North Carolina, aside from the regular alimony, the court can award the dependent spouse with post-separation support. However, post-separation support ends when alimony is either granted or denied.

If a couple files for divorce in North Carolina, there is an obligatory separation of one year. During this separation period, the dependent spouse can seek for post-separation support claiming that they have insufficient funds to meet their reasonable needs. Therefore, the court will determine whether that is the case and whether the supporting spouse has the necessary means to make these payments. 

Essentially, the court is the one that determines the exact sum that the supporting spouse will be paying to the dependent spouse. This decision is made based on the supporting spouse’s earnings during the trial. Therefore, there have been cases where the supporting spouse tried to reduce the earnings in order to get out of paying alimony. However, if there is proof that they have been trying to avoid their financial responsibilities intentionally, the court might look past the earnings.

In North Carolina, we don’t have precise rules about the minimum length of the marriage for the alimony award. But, couples whose marriage lasted for 10 years or less usually don’t receive alimony for more than half of the length of their marriage.

Alimony rules when it comes to tax ramifications are as follows:

When it comes to the supporting spouse, alimony is tax deductible. On the other hand, as far as the dependent spouse is concerned, alimony is taxable.

We can define alimony as a legal obligation one spouse has to provide to the other spouse after a divorce. The court will take into consideration the financial earnings and needs of both spouses in order to determine whether there is a need for post-separation support. Once the divorce process has been initiated, the Court will determine the amount and duration of post-separation support. Upon the finalization of the divorce, the court may award alimony.

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Only a judge can determine alimony; there is no jury that’s entitled to do so. Spouses have the right to request a jury trial in order to determine marital misconduct issues. However, that is all a jury will decide. The one to decide how much, if any, alimony is awarded, is the judge.

There are a few states that accept the alienation of affection lawsuits and North Carolina is one of them. Essentially, a spouse can sue a third party for interfering in the marriage, thus depriving them of the love and affection of their spouse.

The court has the right to change the alimony award, provided there have been changes of circumstances of either party. That way, once we file for alimony, the court needs to have enough facts on the record to show the current state of circumstances. Hence, these facts will be necessary to compare the existing state to the previous one. However, courts in North Carolina can’t change alimony awards determined by another state. 

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