You can avoid paying alimony in Wisconsin only through lawful means: a valid marital property agreement that limits or waives maintenance, a negotiated settlement, evidence that your spouse can support themselves, or a later modification after a substantial change. Hiding income or quitting a job backfires, because courts can base support on your earning capacity instead.
Wisconsin calls alimony maintenance. Under Wis. Stat. § 767.56, the court weighs the length of the marriage, each spouse’s age and health, the property division, education, the requesting spouse’s earning capacity, whether that spouse can become self-supporting at a standard of living reasonably comparable to the marriage, tax consequences, and any agreement the spouses made. To avoid paying alimony in Wisconsin legally, you must address those factors with evidence or an agreement. See the guide to alimony in Wisconsin.
Spouses can modify or eliminate spousal support in a marital property agreement signed before or during marriage. The agreement is unenforceable if it was unconscionable when made, was not signed voluntarily, or was signed without fair and reasonable disclosure of the other spouse’s finances and without notice of them. A court can still require support if the waiver would make your spouse eligible for public assistance at divorce. At divorce, you can also negotiate limited-term maintenance or a property division in place of maintenance, and a judgment that waives maintenance cannot later be revised. See whether you can waive alimony in a Wisconsin divorce agreement.
Maintenance often turns on the other spouse’s earning capacity, including education, training, work history, and time out of the job market. A vocational expert in a Wisconsin divorce can assess what your spouse could earn. Maintenance ends at either spouse’s death, and the court must vacate it when the recipient remarries. It can be modified after a substantial change in circumstances, and a recipient’s cohabitation matters only to the extent it improves the recipient’s finances.
Do not quit, cut your hours, or hide income. Wisconsin courts can use earning capacity instead of actual earnings when a party’s decision to reduce or forgo income is voluntary and unreasonable, which courts call shirking, and no intent to avoid support is required.
Renier Hotopp Law Offices helps clients who want to avoid paying alimony in Wisconsin build lawful arguments through its Wisconsin alimony and maintenance attorney services. Learn more about the firm.
