The Legal Issues 141
note, this is not my wording—it’s literally the phrase the judges
use. Personally, I feel that the term “rehabilitative” is demeaning.)
In order to receive spousal support, the recipient must gener-
ally show some kind of transitional plan for how they are going
to productively use the money (and the rehabilitation time it
buys them) for some sort of self-improvement scenario such as
going back to school to get one’s nursing or teaching certificate
brought up to current standards, or finishing college, or attend-
ing graduate school. An alimony recipient generally has to have
an actual plan for just what they intend to do with those years
during which they are to receive alimony. One must be prepared
to demonstrate in a career-counseling context just how much the
extra education is going to increase one’s earning capacity on
the open job market.
Alimony can take the form of either a lump sum or periodic
payments. Collectibility can be a real problem, and alimony
awards generally should be secured by a life insurance policy on
the life of the payor.
Under federal income tax laws, alimony provisions must be in
writing and a divorce decree must state that alimony terminates
on the payee spouse’s death in order for it to be a tax deduction
on the payor’s gross income and be included instead as taxable
income to the recipient. In most states, alimony automatically
terminates when the payee spouse remarries. Under unusual
circumstances, however, the parties may agree and/or the court
may occasionally order, that alimony payments shall continue
even after remarriage.
Statistically and realistically speaking, most alimony recipi-
ents continue to be women. The stereotype that only women
receive alimony is far from true, however. State laws now allow
family courts to order either spouse to support the other, regard-
less of sex.
Many social philosophers have observed that awards of alimony
are now much too rare and much too conservative in amounts. This
problem seems to stem from the fact that when no-fault divorce
emerged, the concept of blame disappeared. Marriage has instead
come to be treated as a purely economic partnership. Alimony
has been largely eliminated in many jurisdictions. Furthermore,