Texas is a Community Property state.  There are nine states in all that follow community property distributions.  These states include: Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin.  The remainder of other states not following community property rules is termed as "common law" states.  Compared to common law state, community property states such as Texas treat marital income and property acquired during marriage differently.  The general rule is that under community property or community income states such as Texas, income or property acquired during marriage is deemed to be divided in a just and right manner of division.  This does not necessary mean equal to the penny, but as close to half-and-half distribution.  In most cases this is achieved through the division of community property to one-half to one spouse and the other half to the other spouse or a close equal fifty (50%) percent division for both spouses.

The rule applies to all income and property acquired or earned during the term of marriage.  The exceptions to this community property rule are property or assets acquired before marriage, inherited property or separately gifted property or assets.  Separate property remains identifiable to the spouse or individual even during or after marriage.

One common misconception by divorcing parties is that whoever earned the income is his' or hers property.  That may be true for common law states but not for community property states like Texas and California.