The Colorado divorce calculator: both numbers, entered once.
Two incomes, the length of the marriage and a parenting schedule, and the page runs maintenance first under C.R.S. 14-10-114, then child support under the 2026 law with the maintenance grossed up as the worksheet requires, and shows the total transfer and each parent’s income after it. Nothing you enter leaves your browser.
- 01The calculator
- 02Why the order matters
- 03Worked examples
- 04Reading the result
- 05Methodology and updates
- →Questions
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Updated September 21, 2026Law current through March 1, 2026Reviewed by Aaron Herzberg, Colorado attorney
Why the order matters
40% of combined monthly adjusted gross income minus the lower income, times 80% or 75%; the term from the months of marriage. C.R.S. § 14-10-114(3)(b).
The payor’s income drops by the maintenance times 1.25 or 1.33; the recipient’s rises by the same grossed-up figure. Deductible pre-2019 maintenance uses the actual amount. C.R.S. § 14-10-115(3)(a)(II), (5)(a)(I.5).
The 2026 schedule, the parenting-time credit, the low-income rules and the add-ons, on JDF 1821. The order is the net of the two.
Run child support first and every number after it is wrong. The statute says which comes first; the calculator just obeys.
Worked examples
From the engine on this page, current as of September 21, 2026.
Maintenance $3,150.00 for 5 years 2 months. On the worksheet Parent 1’s income falls by $4,189.50 (1.33 times the maintenance) and Parent 2’s rises by the same; child support is $1,198.80. After both, Parent 1 has $10,651 a month and Parent 2 $7,349.
Maintenance $900.00; over twenty years of marriage the term is the court’s discretion. Child support on the adjusted incomes is $1,064.46.
Maintenance $800.00 for 4 years 6 months; child support $135.00 with equal overnights, because the incomes are still unequal after the transfer.
Reading the result
Gross, not net; guideline, not order
The after-transfer figures are pre-tax cash flow, and the best test of whether the guideline result is realistic.
The bars show each parent’s gross monthly income before and after the transfers. They are useful for one question: can this household budget actually work? A payor left with less than the recipient, or a recipient who cannot cover rent, is a sign the guideline result will not survive a hearing unchanged, and a reason to start the temporary orders conversation early.
Taxes do not change the picture as much as people expect. Post-2018 maintenance is neither deductible nor taxable; child support never was. What does move is filing status, who claims the children, the child tax credit and the dependent care credit, all of which are on the divorce and taxes page.
Questions about running both numbers
Why calculate maintenance before child support?
Because maintenance ordered between the same two parents changes both incomes on the child support worksheet. The payor’s income goes down and the recipient’s goes up, each grossed up by 1.25 or 1.33 because the payment is neither deductible nor taxable under post-2018 orders (C.R.S. 14-10-115(3)(a)(II), (5)(a)(I.5)). Run child support first and you get the wrong number. This calculator sequences the two automatically.
What does the total transfer mean?
The net monthly amount that moves from one parent to the other once maintenance and child support are combined. Usually both run the same direction, from the higher earner. Occasionally they run opposite ways, for example when the higher earner has most of the overnights; then the calculator nets them and shows who pays the difference.
Are the after-transfer incomes take-home pay?
No. They are each parent’s gross monthly income plus or minus the transfers, before taxes. Because maintenance under post-2018 orders is neither taxable nor deductible, and child support never was, the tax on each parent’s earnings is unchanged by the transfers. The divorce-and-taxes page covers filing status, dependents and the credits that do move.
What if we were not married, or maintenance is waived?
Tick the option to skip maintenance. The calculator then runs child support alone on the gross incomes. Parents who were never married have no maintenance claim; married parents can waive it in an agreement, and the court reviews the agreement for unconscionability.
What if there are no children?
Set the children to zero and the page shows maintenance alone. If you only need that, the maintenance calculator has more room for the explanation and the term chart.
Can I enter child care, insurance and other expenses?
Yes, in step four. Work-related child care is entered gross and the calculator nets the federal credit; the children’s share of the health insurance premium, ongoing extraordinary medical costs, education-related child care and other extraordinary expenses are shared by income. Each parent gets credit for what that parent pays directly.
Which parenting schedules can I tick?
Alternating weeks, 2-2-3, 2-2-5-5 and 3-4-4-3 for equal time; every other weekend Friday to Sunday or to Monday, every other weekend with a midweek overnight, every other long weekend with Wednesdays, every weekend, and every other Thursday to Monday for the common unequal schedules; a school-year-and-summer pattern for long-distance plans; and a custom count. The parenting-time calculator explains each one and adds holidays and summer.
Does the calculator handle incomes above the limits?
Yes, and it tells you. Above $240,000 of combined annual income the maintenance guideline does not apply; the calculator keeps running the formula and flags the result, or caps combined income at $20,000 a month if you switch the option. Above $40,000 of combined monthly income the child support schedule ends; the calculator extrapolates it proportionally by default and shows the statutory floor beside it.
Are these the numbers a judge will order?
They are the guideline numbers, which is where the judge starts. Child support is a rebuttable presumption; maintenance is advisory and requires findings. The largest variable is not the formula but the incomes the court finds, and in a contested case that is what the evidence is about.
How do I keep a copy?
Use Copy summary to put the inputs, the results and the line-by-line explanation on your clipboard, or Print to print the results panel. Nothing is saved on this site; if you close the page the numbers are gone.
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Two statutes, one household budget. Run them in the right order.
A consultation is a working session, in person in Greenwood Village or by video: bring the pay stubs, the returns and the parenting plan, and we run the numbers the way a judge will see them. Your note reaches my office directly; during business hours we call you back within the hour, run the conflicts check, and set the meeting.
Talk to us about your case.
303-507-5529One call. A real person picks up, hears you out, and tells you how we would handle what you are facing and what to do first. No phone tree, no sales pitch, no obligation. Your first conversation is with our intake paralegal, who will get you to Aaron fast.
Rather write? Send a short note and during business hours we call you back within the hour.