Financial statements and a calculator on a desk

Colorado maintenance calculator.

Alimony, spousal support, maintenance: Colorado has one word and one advisory formula. Run it here, see the term the statute suggests, and watch what happens when the court counts what your spouse could earn.

→Run the numbers
01How the formula works
02How long it runs
03What counts as income
04Above $240,000
05What the worksheet cannot tell you
06What moves the number
→For the spouse who will pay

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Run the number before they do.

The advisory formula from the payor’s side: both incomes, the marriage length, the term, and the difference potential income makes. With a report you can save; nothing you enter is sent anywhere.

Open the maintenance calculator →

Maintenance and child support togetherIf there are children, run both in one pass: maintenance is set first, then child support on the incomes after it. How long it runsThe advisory term from the months of marriage, from three years to twenty and beyond.

The worksheet is where every maintenance negotiation in Colorado starts. It is not where it should end.

Every calculator on the internet, including this one, runs the same six lines of arithmetic from C.R.S. § 14-10-114. What none of them can do is the part of the statute that comes first: the court has to find that the spouse asking for maintenance actually needs it and cannot be self-supporting, and it has to weigh a list of factors and land on a result that is fair to both of you. The formula is advisory. It says so in the statute.

I built this version for the spouse who will be writing the check. It runs the guideline exactly as written, it shows the term the statute suggests, and it adds the one input the other side’s worksheet never includes: what your spouse could earn if the court counted potential income instead of the number on their financial statement. Everything below the calculator explains what each line means, and what it leaves out.

A lawyer laying out household expense cards on a desk: groceries, travel, private school — What the marriage actually spent

40%

Of combined income, minus the lower income

The guideline is built so that the lower earner ends up with 40% of the combined monthly income before the tax adjustment. That is the whole design.

×0.75

Because it is paid with after-tax dollars

Maintenance has not been deductible since 2018. The statute multiplies by 75%, or 80% when combined income is $10,000 a month or less, to admit it.

31–50%

Of the marriage, as a term

The guideline term starts at 31% of a three-year marriage and reaches half the marriage at twelve and a half years. The term is fought separately from the amount.

Maintenance Calculator

Colorado · C.R.S. § 14-10-114 · payor’s edition

Run the statute’s formula for amount and term. Then move the slider to see what the number does when the court counts what your spouse could earn.

Put in both monthly gross incomes and the length of the marriage. The result is the advisory guideline in C.R.S. § 14-10-114(3)(b), nothing more. If you are the higher earner, the slider shows the difference a vocational assessment can make.

Maintenance calculatorC.R.S. § 14-10-114(3)(b) · advisory

Your monthly gross income

Your spouse’s monthly gross income

Length of the marriage

yearsmonths

If the court found your spouse could earn

$4,000 a month

Advisory guideline amount

—

Guideline term

—

C.R.S. § 14-10-114(3)(b)

The guideline is advisory.

It does not create a presumptive amount or term.

Monthly guideline amount · combined income of $240,000 a year or less

(0.40 × combined monthly income) − lower earner’s monthly income

then × 0.75, or × 0.80 if combined monthly income is $10,000 or less. A negative result is zero.

Above $240,000 of combined annual income the statute says this calculation does not apply. The calculator keeps running the formula past the line, the way it is used in practice as a reference, and flags it.

Before any number, the court must find need and an inability to be self-supporting through appropriate employment.

Most people who pay maintenance never make the other side prove either one.

Worked example · inside the guideline

The math they start with.

Not the law. The starting point.

Your monthly gross income	$14,000
Your spouse’s monthly gross income	$4,000
Combined monthly income	$18,000
40% of combined	$7,200
Minus the lower income	$3,200
× 0.75 (combined over $10,000 a month)	$2,400
Guideline term, 12-year marriage (49%)	71 months
What the worksheet says you pay	$170,400

Term is a separate finding. Amount and duration each need their own record, and both are advisory.

How the Colorado maintenance formula works.

Five steps, using the example above: monthly gross incomes of $14,000 and $4,000. Each step is in C.R.S. § 14-10-114(3)(b)(I).

Step 01

Add both incomes

$18,000

Monthly adjusted gross income for both spouses, combined. Gross, before taxes, from every source.

Step 02

Take 40%

$7,200

Forty percent of the combined figure. This is the share of the household income the guideline assigns to the lower earner.

Step 03

Subtract the lower income

$3,200

Minus the lower earner’s own monthly income. If the result is negative, the guideline amount is zero.

Step 04

Multiply by 0.75

$2,400

Or by 0.80 when combined income is $10,000 a month or less. The statute’s adjustment for maintenance no longer being deductible.

Step 05

Multiply by the term

$170,400

71 months for a twelve-year marriage. The amount and the term are separate findings; both are advisory.

If the worksheet you were handed looks different

A worksheet that takes 40% of the higher earner’s income and subtracts 50% of the lower earner’s is running the formula Colorado used from 2014 through 2018. It produces a different number, usually a smaller one for the payor, and it has not been the guideline since 2019. If it turns up in a mediation, say so.

How long it runs, and why the term is where the money is.

The guideline term is a percentage of the length of the marriage, which the statute measures in whole months from the first of the month after the wedding to the date of the decree, not the date of filing. It starts at 31% for a three-year marriage and climbs one percentage point every six months until it reaches 50% at twelve and a half years, where it stays through twenty years (C.R.S. § 14-10-114(3)(b)(II)). Under three years there is no guideline term at all. Past twenty years the court may award a term of years or indefinite maintenance, and it should not go below the twenty-year guideline of 120 months without findings.

Most payors negotiate the monthly number and accept the term. That is backwards. A $2,400 order over 71 months costs $170,400; the same order over 54 months costs $129,600. A step-down that tracks a vocational timeline, a fixed term that ends at a retirement date, or property in place of part of the payment stream each moves more money than a few hundred dollars a month ever will. The term needs its own findings, which means it can be fought on its own evidence.

A couple and their lawyer over a term sheet showing a step-down maintenance schedule — A step-down, priced against the alternative

C.R.S. § 14-10-114(3)(b)(II) · advisory

The guideline term, by length of marriage.

Each bar is the guideline term in months for a marriage of that many years. The share starts at 31% at three years, climbs one point every six months, reaches 50% at twelve and a half years and holds there to twenty. Tap a bar for the share.

3 yrs → 11 months (31%)113

4 yrs → 16 months (33%)164

5 yrs → 21 months (35%)215

6 yrs → 27 months (37%)276

7 yrs → 33 months (39%)337

8 yrs → 39 months (41%)398

9 yrs → 46 months (43%)469

10 yrs → 54 months (45%)5410

11 yrs → 62 months (47%)6211

12 yrs → 71 months (49%)7112

13 yrs → 78 months (50%)7813

14 yrs → 84 months (50%)8414

15 yrs → 90 months (50%)9015

16 yrs → 96 months (50%)9616

17 yrs → 102 months (50%)10217

18 yrs → 108 months (50%)10818

19 yrs → 114 months (50%)11419

20 yrs → 120 months (50%)12020

50% of the marriage from 12½ years50% from 12½ yrs

Years married →Bars: months of maintenance

Under three yearsNo guideline term. The court decides from the factors, if it awards anything at all.

Over twenty yearsA term of years, or indefinite. Not under 120 months without specific findings.

The guideline term table.

Length of marriage	Guideline term	Share of the marriage
Under 3 years	No guideline; the court decides	—
3 years	11 months	31%
5 years	21 months	35%
8 years	39 months	41%
10 years	54 months	45%
12½ years	75 months	50%
15 years	90 months	50%
20 years	120 months	50%
Over 20 years	A term of years, or indefinite; not under 120 months without findings	—

C.R.S. § 14-10-114(3)(b)(II). Advisory, like the amount.

What counts as income.

The formula runs on monthly adjusted gross income: gross income from any source, less maintenance or child support already being paid under another order (C.R.S. § 14-10-114(8)). For a salaried employee that is mostly the W-2. For an owner, an executive or anyone paid in more than one way, it is where the case is actually decided, because the guideline moves by $300 a month for every $1,000 of monthly income added to the payor’s side, and by $450 for every $1,000 added to the recipient’s.

Business income is gross receipts minus the ordinary and necessary expenses of producing them, which is not the same as what the tax return shows and not the same as what the owner takes home. Bonuses, commissions and equity that vests count in the year they are paid, and the question of whether an unvested grant is income or property is worth its own page. And a spouse who is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed can be assigned potential income, the number a court finds they could earn, instead of the number on the financial statement (C.R.S. § 14-10-114(8)(c)(IV)). That is the slider in the calculator, and the evidence behind it is a vocational assessment.

Two pages go deeper: income determination when you own the company, and executive compensation when you are paid in stock.

Counted

Gross income, from any source.

Salary, wages, tips, overtime that the job requires
Bonuses, commissions and severance
Self-employment and business income: receipts minus ordinary and necessary expenses
Dividends, interest, capital gains, rents, royalties and trust income
Pension and retirement benefits being paid; disability, unemployment and workers’ compensation benefits; monetary gifts
Potential income, if a spouse is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed

Not counted, or taken out

What the statute leaves off.

Child support received for a child
Means-tested public assistance
A second job that takes a spouse past full-time hours
Maintenance or child support already being paid under another order
Potential income for a spouse who is physically or mentally incapacitated, or caring for the parties’ child under thirty months

A calculator showing 240,000 with a red X painted over it

The line the calculator stops at

Above $240,000, there is no formula.

The guideline amount applies only when the parties’ combined annual adjusted gross income is $240,000 or less (C.R.S. § 14-10-114(3.5)). Above that line the court sets the amount from the statutory factors and the evidence, and it may not run the formula on a bigger number and call the result an answer. It may still look at the guideline term. Two Denver professionals, or one owner’s K-1, clear $240,000 without trying, which is why the calculator above says “No formula” for many of the people who use it.

What that means for the payor

The case is an evidence case: the marital lifestyle, real earning capacity on both sides, what income actually is
Your own reasonable needs are a statutory factor, and so is the property each side takes
A worksheet run on $400,000 of combined income is not evidence of anything

Seven things the worksheet cannot tell you.

Each one is in the statute, and each one comes before the formula in the order a judge has to decide them.

Across a conference table from her lawyer, a woman listens, a closed folder in front of her, the foothills in the window

Whether maintenance is warranted at all.
The court must first find that the spouse asking for it lacks sufficient property, including what they receive in the divorce, to meet reasonable needs, and cannot be self-supporting through appropriate employment. No finding, no award (C.R.S. § 14-10-114(3)(a)(I)).
What “reasonable needs” are.
Reasonable need as established during the marriage, not a budget written after the separation. The lifestyle analysis is the evidence; the financial statement is a claim.
The factors.
Each spouse’s financial resources and the property they receive; the lifestyle during the marriage; both parties’ income, employment and employability; the length of the marriage; temporary maintenance already paid; age and health; contributions to the marriage; the tax treatment; since 2025, whether a spouse engaged in domestic violence, coercive control or economic abuse; and anything else the court finds relevant (C.R.S. § 14-10-114(3)(c)).
Whether the guideline result is fair.
The court must find that the amount and term are fair and equitable to both parties. It can award less, more, or nothing, and it can order a step-down or property instead (C.R.S. § 14-10-114(3)(e)).
What your spouse could earn.
The worksheet uses the income on the financial statement, which is often zero. The statute uses potential income for a spouse who is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed. That is the difference the slider shows.
What you actually earn.
A best year is not income; a bonus that will not recur is not income; a company’s retained earnings may or may not be. The number that goes into the formula on your side is a fight too.
What it costs after tax.
You pay maintenance with dollars you have already paid tax on. Every proposal, including the worksheet’s, should be priced after tax on both sides before anyone agrees to it.

What moves the number, in both directions.

Down

What lowers the guideline, or takes it off the table.

Potential income assigned to your spouse on a vocational assessment
Your own income normalized: not the best year, and not the same dollars counted twice when a business is valued
Combined income placed above $240,000, on the evidence
A shorter term, a step-down that follows the vocational timeline, or a fixed end date
More property to your spouse in exchange for less maintenance, or none
Need tested line by line against what the marriage actually spent

What raises it, usually without anyone noticing.

Your spouse’s income entered at zero and never challenged
Your bonus, RSUs or K-1 counted at the peak year
A temporary order paid for a year without objection, which becomes a factor in the final award
Negotiating the monthly amount and conceding the term
A financial statement on your side that is padded, rounded or incomplete
Agreeing to a number before the record exists

The five strategies I use against a maintenance claim, in the order I use them, are on maintenance for the spouse who will pay. If you are already paying under an order, the calculator is a benchmark, not a remedy: see how an existing maintenance order is modified or ended.

The formula tells you what a worksheet says. The statute tells the judge what to decide first.

If you will be the one writing the check, run the number with me before you agree to it →

The statute in plain terms · Temporary maintenance · Where the formula came from · Maintenance and child support together

The statute in plain terms.

C.R.S. § 14-10-114 does three things. Subsection (3)(a) sets the threshold: the court may award maintenance only if it finds the requesting spouse lacks sufficient property to provide for reasonable needs and is unable to support themselves through appropriate employment. Subsection (3)(b) publishes the advisory guideline for amount and term, which applies to marriages of at least three years with combined income of $240,000 or less. Subsection (3)(c) lists the factors the court weighs, and (3)(e) requires findings on each of them for both the amount and the term. An award entered without those findings is reversible (In re Marriage of Wright, 2020 COA 11).

Temporary maintenance.

While the case is pending, the same guideline amount is the starting point for temporary orders (C.R.S. § 14-10-114(4)); the guideline term does not apply to temporary maintenance, and the court sets that term itself. The amount and duration of temporary maintenance already paid is then one of the factors in the permanent award. The first number tends to stick. The record on need and earning capacity has to exist before the temporary orders hearing, which is usually within a few months of filing, and a missed payment under a temporary order becomes a judgment the day it is due (C.R.S. § 14-10-122(1)(c)).

Where the formula came from.

Before 2014 Colorado had a guideline only for temporary maintenance. The 2014 statute added an advisory formula for permanent maintenance: 40% of the higher earner’s income minus 50% of the lower earner’s, capped so the recipient’s income plus maintenance did not exceed 40% of the combined total. When the federal deduction for maintenance ended for orders entered after 2018, Colorado rewrote the formula to the current version: 40% of combined income minus the lower income, multiplied by 80% or 75%. Both versions are advisory. Only the current one is the guideline.

Maintenance and child support together.

Maintenance is calculated first. In the child support worksheet under C.R.S. § 14-10-115, maintenance paid is then deducted from the payor’s income and added to the recipient’s, multiplied by 1.25 or 1.33 because it is not taxable, so a change in one number moves the other. When children are involved I run both calculations together, and I price every proposal after tax on both sides before anyone agrees to it.

What people ask the calculator.

Is the Colorado maintenance calculator the law?

No. The formula in C.R.S. 14-10-114 is advisory. It does not create a presumptive amount or term. Before a court can order maintenance at all it has to find that the spouse asking for it lacks enough property to meet reasonable needs and cannot be self-supporting through appropriate employment. Then it weighs the statutory factors and has to reach a result that is fair to both spouses. The worksheet is where the conversation starts, not where it ends.

How is maintenance calculated in Colorado?

For marriages of three years or more with combined income of $240,000 a year or less: take 40% of the parties’ combined monthly adjusted gross income, subtract the lower earner’s monthly adjusted gross income, and multiply the result by 80% if combined monthly income is $10,000 or less, or by 75% if it is more than $10,000. A negative result is zero. Example: $14,000 and $4,000 a month gives a guideline of $2,400 a month.

How long does maintenance last in Colorado?

The guideline term runs from 31% of the length of the marriage at three years up to 50% at twelve and a half years, and stays at 50% through twenty years. A twelve-year marriage suggests about 71 months. Under three years there is no guideline term. Over twenty years the court may set a term or make maintenance indefinite. The term is a separate finding from the amount, and it is where most of the money is.

Is alimony the same thing as maintenance in Colorado?

Yes. Colorado’s statute uses the word maintenance for what other states call alimony or spousal support. Same formula, same factors, same court. If you searched for an alimony calculator or a spousal support calculator, this is the calculation.

What if our combined income is over $240,000?

By statute the guideline calculation does not apply. Above $240,000 of combined annual adjusted gross income the court sets the amount from the statutory factors and the evidence, and it may still look at the guideline term. In practice both sides run the formula on the larger number anyway, as the reference point the negotiation starts from; the calculator on this page does the same and flags the result as above the line. A judge is not bound by that figure, and the case becomes an evidence case: lifestyle, need, earning capacity on both sides, and the property each spouse takes.

What income does the formula use?

Monthly adjusted gross income: gross income from any source, including salary, bonuses, commissions, self-employment and business income, dividends, interest, rents and pension income, minus maintenance or child support already being paid under another order. Child support received is not income. If a spouse is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed, the court can use potential income instead of reported income.

Is maintenance tax-deductible in Colorado?

Not for orders entered after December 31, 2018. The payor pays with after-tax dollars and the recipient does not report it as income. That is the reason the formula multiplies by 75% or 80%: the statute’s way of accounting for the lost deduction. Agreements from 2018 or earlier can still be deductible, which is one reason the words in an old decree matter.

Does the calculator include child support?

No. Child support is a separate calculation under C.R.S. 14-10-115, and maintenance is figured first. Maintenance paid is then treated as income to the recipient and deducted from the payor in the child support worksheet, grossed up by 1.25 or 1.33 because it is not taxable, so the two numbers move together. Run maintenance first, then child support.

Can a judge order a different number than the calculator?

Yes, and judges do. The court can find that no maintenance is warranted at all, award less or more than the guideline, set a shorter or longer term, order a step-down, or award property in place of maintenance. It has to explain the result with findings on the statutory factors, and an award without them can be reversed.

Does the formula apply to temporary maintenance while the divorce is pending?

The same guideline amount is the starting point for temporary orders, though the guideline term does not apply to them. The months you pay under a temporary order are then a factor in the final award. That is why the first number tends to stick, and why the record on need and earning capacity should exist before the temporary orders hearing, not after.

Keep reading

Where to go next.

The next page in this chapter, the pages that belong with it, and the blog posts on the same question.

Next in Chapter I · The Money

Vocational AssessmentThe expert that turns a zero into potential incomeRead it next →

From the blog, on this topic

Sept 9, 2026How Colorado's Maintenance Formula Works, and When Judges Ignore It

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Sept 7, 2026Maintenance After SB25-116: Colorado's No-Fault Rule Gets an Asterisk

A 2025 amendment lets Colorado courts weigh domestic violence, coercive control, and economic abuse when setting maintenance, beside a statute that still says…

All articles from the blog →

Previous‹ Ending or Reducing MaintenanceThis chapterChapter I · The Money →

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