Yes, you can refinance using alimony or child support income. Lenders will count it when a court order requires it, you have received it long enough, and it will keep coming for at least 3 more years. Miss one of those three tests and the income drops out of your math. Below is how each test works, what a lender wants to see, and a Scottsdale example where the answer swings debt to income by almost ten points.

The three tests lenders apply to support income

The first test is a legal obligation. A divorce decree, separation agreement, or court order has to require the payments. A handshake deal between you and your former partner does not count, even if the money arrives on time every month. In Arizona, alimony is called spousal maintenance, and the court sets its amount and duration. You can read the statute at the Arizona Legislature.

The second test is history. For most conventional loans, lenders want to see about 6 months of payments actually received. FHA and VA loans set their own rules, and they can ask for more, so confirm the requirement for the loan you hold. Our guide to documents needed to refinance in Arizona lists the paper that proves it.

The third test is continuance. The income has to last at least 3 years past the date of your new loan. For child support, that means the youngest child must be old enough that support runs 3 more years. If your child turns 18 in two years, the support does not count. Spousal maintenance with a long term can still count, and some orders run well past 3 years. Your court order controls the end date, so read it before you guess.

Lenders do not ask how reliable your former partner is. They ask whether the order says the money keeps coming.

A real example: $5,800 in wages plus $1,400 in support

Say you live in Scottsdale, earn $5,800 a month in wages, and receive $1,400 a month in child support under a court order. Your youngest child is 9, so support runs far beyond 3 years. You owe $310,000 and want to refinance from 7.00% down to 6.50%. Those rates are examples for the math, not a quote. Principal and interest drops about $103 a month, from roughly $2,062 to $1,959. Add $480 for property taxes and insurance, $520 for a car payment, and $110 in card minimums, and your new monthly obligations come to about $3,069.

Now watch what the lender does with the support.

Same borrower, same house, same new loan. The ratio moves almost ten points depending on whether the support qualifies. Many conventional loans want debt to income at or below 45%, and automated underwriting can go higher with strong credit and reserves. At 52.9% most files stall. At 42.6% this one sails through. That is why proving the support matters more than the quarter point you are chasing. Our guide to debt to income ratio shows where the limits sit.

Run your own numbers

What documents prove support income

Expect to hand over the court order or decree, signed by the judge, plus proof the money actually arrives. In Arizona, payments that run through the Support Payment Clearinghouse produce a payment history printout, and lenders like that record because it is official. If your former partner pays you directly, bank statements showing each deposit do the same job. Lenders may also ask for a letter or record confirming the order is still active. Keep deposits clean. A payment that arrives in cash and never touches a bank account is hard to count.

Tax treatment is a separate matter. Child support is not taxable to you. Spousal maintenance under a divorce instrument signed after 2018 is generally not taxable to the recipient or deductible by the payer. The Internal Revenue Service covers the rules, and a tax professional can confirm how they apply to you. If the divorce also left you with a loan in both names, read our guide to refinancing to remove a spouse from a mortgage.

If you pay support instead of receiving it

The math runs the other way. Lenders treat the payment you make as a monthly obligation, or they subtract it from your income, and either one raises your debt to income ratio. Some conventional guidelines let a support payment with fewer than 10 months left be excluded, which can help if your obligation is about to end. Ask your lender how it handles yours. If a recent job change is also in play, our post on changing jobs during a refinance covers what lenders re-verify, and a similar income averaging story is in our guide to refinancing with commission income.

You can leave support income out

Federal law says you do not have to disclose alimony, child support, or separate maintenance income unless you want it counted. A lender cannot discount it because it is support instead of wages. So if you qualify on your wages alone, you can keep it off the application. If you need it, include it and document it. Either way, the choice is yours, and a good loan officer should tell you that before you start. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau publishes plain language guides to what lenders review.

How to get ready before you apply

Pull the order and find the end date. Print or download 6 months of payment history. Add up the support you really receive, not what the order says on paper, because a lender counts what arrives. Then check your other debts, and pay down any small card balances that sit on your credit report. A $110 minimum can cost you a point of ratio. If you were denied once, read why refinances get denied before you reapply.

Then run the break-even math so the new loan is worth it. A lower rate only helps if you keep the loan long enough to recover closing costs. Our post on the refinance break-even point shows how.

Look at your choices on our loan programs page, and see how our process works from application to closing. Meet the Pillar Mortgage Group team, visit pillarmortgagegroup.com, and if a move around Metro Phoenix is also on your mind, start on Arizona Luxury Property Search. We help borrowers across Scottsdale, Phoenix, and the Valley, and we will tell you which income counts before you apply.

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