Tax returns, pay statements and a calculator on a desk

Spousal maintenance in Colorado.

Colorado calls it maintenance; you may know it as alimony or spousal support. There is a formula, and it is advisory. How it works, how long it runs, what the court decides first, and what changes it later, for whichever side of the check you are on.

→Run the numbers
→How long it runs: the term chart
01How maintenance is decided
02What the court weighs
03Tax, security, finality
04What changes it later
05What to bring
→For the spouse who will pay
→Modify or end an existing order

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Run the 2026 maintenance formula.

Both monthly incomes and the length of the marriage: the advisory amount, the after-tax adjustment, the term, and what happens to the number when the court counts what the lower earner could earn. 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 formula is where every maintenance conversation starts. For the clients I represent, it is rarely where it ends.

Under C.R.S. § 14-10-114 the court may award maintenance only after finding 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. Then, for marriages of three years or more with combined income of $240,000 a year or less, an advisory formula suggests an amount and a term. The court must consider it, is not bound by it, and must still find the result fair to both spouses.

Two Denver professionals, or one owner’s normalized K-1, clear the $240,000 threshold easily. Above it the formula no longer controls and maintenance turns on the statutory factors and the record: income, need, the standard of living during the marriage, and what income actually is when a business is involved. Whichever side you are on, the case is decided on evidence, and the evidence is what I build.

Boulder County maintenance cases are heard in the 20th Judicial District, which keeps its own disclosure and hearing calendar. How that court runs a case is on the Boulder divorce page.

A ledger of monthly payments — The number, month after month

40%

Of combined income, minus the lower income

The advisory formula, then ×0.75 (or ×0.80 when combined income is $10,000 a month or less) because maintenance is no longer deductible.

$240,000

Where the statute’s formula stops

Above that combined annual income the guideline amount does not apply; the court decides from the factors and the evidence. The calculator runs the formula past the line anyway, and flags it.

31–50%

Of the marriage, as a term

From a three-year marriage to twelve and a half years and beyond. Past twenty years, a term of years or indefinite.

Maintenance Calculator

Colorado · C.R.S. § 14-10-114 · advisory

The number both sides will start from, and what happens to it when the court counts what the lower earner could earn.

Put in both monthly gross incomes and the length of the marriage. This is the statute’s advisory formula, nothing more: the court must find need first, and may reject the result. The slider shows what potential income does to the number.

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 the lower earner 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.

Both findings are made on evidence, which is why these cases turn on the record, not the worksheet.

Worked example · inside the guideline

The math both sides 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, over the term	$170,400

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

The term, by length of marriage.

The second number, and usually the bigger one: a share of the marriage, advisory like the amount. The calculator above runs it for your marriage; this is the whole curve.

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 statute measures the marriage in whole months, from the first of the month after the wedding to the decree. The table, line by line, and what a step-down does to the total: the calculator page.

Need first, then amount, then term.

Three findings, in that order, each on evidence. The formula only enters at the second.

First

Is maintenance warranted at all?

The court must find that the spouse asking for it lacks sufficient property, including the marital property they receive, to provide for reasonable needs, and is unable to support themselves through appropriate employment. No finding, no award.

Then

The amount.

Inside the guideline: 40% of combined monthly adjusted gross income minus the lower earner’s income, times 0.75 or 0.80 (C.R.S. § 14-10-114(3)(b)(I)). Above $240,000 combined: no formula; the factors and the evidence. Either way, the court must find the result fair.

Then

The term.

The guideline scales the term to the length of the marriage, from about 31% at three years to 50% at twelve and a half years and beyond; past twenty years, a term or indefinite (C.R.S. § 14-10-114(3)(b)(II)). A separate finding from the amount, and where most of the money is.

Throughout

The income.

Gross income from any source, adjusted for support already paid under another order. For an owner or an executive, what income is takes real work, and a spouse who is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed can be assigned potential income.

What the court weighs.

Whether the formula applies or not, the court decides on these, and it has to explain the result with findings.

The guideline is advisory. The court must consider it and may depart from it, and in every case it weighs the statutory factors and must find that the amount and the term are fair and equitable to both parties (C.R.S. § 14-10-114(3)(c), (3)(e)). An award entered without those findings can be reversed on appeal (In re Marriage of Wright, 2020 COA 11).

Since 2025 the list includes whether a spouse engaged in domestic violence, coercive control or economic abuse against the other (SB25-116). It is one factor among many, not an automatic adjustment, and it is the exception to Colorado’s rule that maintenance is set without regard to marital misconduct.

For executives and owners the factor that decides the case is usually income: W-2 salary is easy; K-1 income, retained earnings, distributions and perks are not, and the difference between reported income and real economic income can be the whole case. It also intersects with the business’s value: the same dollars should not fund a valuation and a maintenance award twice. See income determination.

What the court weighs

The statutory factors.

Each spouse’s financial resources, including the property they receive and their ability to meet needs independently
The lifestyle during the marriage
Both spouses’ income, employment and employability, including potential income
The length of the marriage
Temporary maintenance already paid, and for how long
Age and health
Contributions to the marriage, economic and otherwise
The tax treatment of the award
Since 2025, domestic violence, coercive control or economic abuse
Anything else the court finds relevant

What the formula is not

The limits of the worksheet.

Not a presumption: the court can find no maintenance is warranted at all
Not a floor or a ceiling on the amount or the term
Not applicable above $240,000 of combined income
Not a substitute for the findings on need and employability
Not aware of what income actually is for an owner

Tax, security, and finality.

A settlement comparison sheet showing pre-tax and after-tax columns beside a calculator

Tax

Not deductible, not taxable, since 2018.

For divorce or separation instruments executed after 2018, maintenance is neither deductible to the payor nor taxable to the recipient for federal purposes; older instruments and their modifications can require their own tax review. That changed the real cost of every dollar, reshaped how settlements trade support against property, and is exactly why the guideline formula (C.R.S. § 14-10-114(3)(b)(I)) carries its 75–80% multiplier. The after-tax number is the one I negotiate, and in the right cases dividing income-producing property or structuring a buyout accomplishes what deductible alimony used to.

What I do

Price every proposal after tax, on both sides
Model property in place of maintenance where the estate allows it
Run maintenance and child support together, because each changes the other

A stack of decree pages and a calculator on a desk

Security and finality

A term to be engineered, not endured.

A support award is only as good as the payor’s life and income, so life insurance and other security belong in the structure, not as afterthoughts, and the security can shrink as the balance does. Maintenance can generally be modified when circumstances change substantially, unless the parties make it contractual and non-modifiable, trading flexibility for certainty. That is one of the most useful settlement tools in a high-asset case, and it is worth different amounts depending on which side of the check you are on.

What I do

Draft the termination events, the modifiability language and the security, not the boilerplate
Model a step-down or a fixed term against the alternatives
Say plainly which side finality favors on your facts

What changes it later.

An order is not forever. Four pages cover the rest, for whichever side you are on.

Already paying

Modify or end an existing order.

Remarriage ends it by statute unless the agreement says otherwise. Cohabitation does not, by itself. Retirement at full retirement age is presumed in good faith. A lasting change in either income can support a motion, and relief runs from the filing date. Modify or end maintenance.

About to pay

Contesting need, earning capacity and the term.

The other side has to prove need, employability and term; the court can put property in place of maintenance; above $240,000 there is no formula. The strategies, in the order I use them. Paying maintenance.

The number

The calculator, line by line.

The formula walked through with a worked example, the term table, what counts as income, and what the worksheet cannot tell you. Colorado maintenance calculator.

The income

When a spouse could earn more.

A vocational assessment is the evidence that turns a zero on a financial statement into potential income, for a recipient or a payor. What it is, when it moves the number, and how it is challenged. Vocational assessment.

What I tell both sides at the first meeting.

Five things. They are the same whichever side of the check you are on, and they are the reason I ask for the records before I give a number.

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

The formula is advisory.
The court must consider it, may reject it, and above $240,000 does not use it. Nobody should agree to a worksheet as if it were the law.
The income number is the case.
For an owner or an executive, what income is takes work. Normalized, not the best year; and not the same dollars counted in the valuation and again here.
The term is where the money is.
A smaller monthly number over a long term costs more than a larger one that ends. Amount and term are separate findings; argue both.
Price it after tax.
Maintenance is paid with after-tax dollars now. Every proposal, including a property trade in place of it, is priced after tax before anyone says yes.
Draft the end.
Termination events, modifiability and security are written, not defaulted. The words in the decree decide what can happen ten years from now.

Six things people get wrong.

The formula is the law.

It is advisory. The court must find need and employability first, must reach a fair result, and above $240,000 there is no formula for the amount at all.

Alimony is for life.

The guideline term is a share of the marriage, from about 31% to 50%. Past twenty years the court may make it indefinite; it is not the default.

Living together ends it.

Remarriage or a civil union ends maintenance by statute. Cohabitation does not, by itself. It can support a modification when the new household changes the recipient’s finances.

It’s tax deductible.

Not for orders after 2018. The payor pays with after-tax dollars, and the formula’s multiplier is the statute’s way of saying so.

The affair changes the number.

Colorado sets maintenance without regard to marital misconduct. The exception since 2025 is domestic violence, coercive control or economic abuse, as one factor among many.

Once ordered, it can’t change.

Unless the agreement made it non-modifiable, it can be modified on a substantial and continuing change, and it ends by statute on remarriage. File when the change happens; relief runs from filing.

What to bring, and what to settle first.

Before the first meeting

Bring the record.

Three years of tax returns, with W-2s, K-1s and 1099s, for both spouses if you have them
Recent pay stubs and any bonus, equity or deferred compensation plan
A year of household bank and card statements, or the budget you actually lived on
Both résumés, degrees and licenses
Any prenuptial or postnuptial agreement
Retirement and brokerage statements for both of you
Any temporary order or agreement already in place

Before you agree to any number

Six things settled first.

Need and employability addressed on evidence, not assumed
Combined income placed above or below $240,000, on the returns
Both incomes normalized, and potential income considered where a spouse is not working
The term modeled, with any step-down, against the alternatives
The whole package priced after tax, with child support run alongside
Termination events, modifiability and security drafted, not defaulted

The formula is where the conversation starts. The income is where it is decided.

Whichever side of the check you are on, run the numbers with me before you agree →

The statute in plain terms · The term table · Above the guideline · Temporary maintenance

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 them for both the amount and the term.

The 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). The statute measures the marriage in whole months from the month after the wedding to the date of the decree. Advisory, like the amount.

Above the guideline, it is an evidence case.

The guideline amount applies only up to combined annual adjusted gross income of $240,000 (C.R.S. § 14-10-114(3.5)). Above it the formula no longer controls: maintenance turns on the statutory factors and the evidence, and the court may still consider the guideline term. For executives and owners that converts the case into a fight about facts: the marital lifestyle, each spouse’s earning capacity, and what counts as income.

Temporary maintenance.

While the case is pending, the same guideline amount is the starting point for temporary orders; the guideline term does not apply to them, and the court sets that term itself (C.R.S. § 14-10-114(4)). The amount and duration of temporary maintenance already paid is then one of the factors in the permanent award, which is why the first number tends to stick.

Run the numbers

Maintenance calculatorAmount and term under 14-10-114, for either spouse Duration calculatorHow long, from the months of marriage Both numbers togetherMaintenance first, then child support

What high earners, and their spouses, ask first.

How is spousal maintenance calculated in Colorado?

For marriages of three years or more with combined income of $240,000 a year or less, the advisory guideline is 40% of the parties’ combined monthly adjusted gross income minus the lower earner’s monthly income, multiplied by 80% if combined monthly income is $10,000 or less, or by 75% if it is more. Example: $12,000 and $4,000 a month gives a guideline of $1,800. The court must consider it and may reject it.

How long does maintenance last?

The advisory guideline scales the term to the length of the marriage: about 31% of a three-year marriage, rising to 50% at twelve and a half years and staying there through twenty. Past twenty years the court may set a term or make maintenance indefinite. Courts keep discretion around all of it. The honest answer is a range built from your facts.

Is the formula mandatory?

No. Courts must consider it and must still find the result fair, and above $240,000 of combined income it does not control at all. Before any amount, the court has to find that the spouse asking for maintenance lacks sufficient property to meet reasonable needs and cannot be self-supporting through appropriate employment. In the cases I handle, the formula is the opening position, not the answer.

Is maintenance taxable?

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 why the formula multiplies by 75% or 80%. Older instruments and their modifications can require their own tax review.

Can we make maintenance final and untouchable?

Yes. By agreement, maintenance can be made contractual and non-modifiable. Whether you should wants real analysis: it is certainty for both sides, which is worth different amounts depending on which side of the check you are on.

Can maintenance be changed later?

Unless the agreement made it non-modifiable, an order can be modified on a substantial and continuing change of circumstances, and it ends by statute on the recipient’s remarriage or civil union unless the agreement says otherwise. Cohabitation does not end it by itself. The change reaches only installments due after the motion is filed.

What happens when combined income is over $240,000?

The guideline amount does not apply. The court sets the amount from the statutory factors and the evidence: the marital lifestyle, each spouse’s earning capacity, what counts as income, and the property each side takes. For owners and executives, what income actually is can be the whole case.

What is a vocational assessment?

An expert’s opinion on what a spouse can earn. If the court finds a spouse voluntarily unemployed or underemployed, maintenance is calculated on potential income instead of reported income, and the assessment is the evidence that finding needs. It cuts both ways: a payor whose income dropped can be evaluated too.

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

Maintenance DefenseFor the spouse who will pay: contesting need, earning capacity and the termRead it next →

From the blog, on this topic

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…

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

Colorado has an advisory formula for spousal maintenance, but it is advisory for a reason. For higher-income couples the guideline stops applying and maintenance…

All articles from the blog →

Previous‹ QDROs & Dividing Retirement PlansThis chapterChapter I · The Money →

Before you argue about the formula, let’s establish what the income actually is.

A consultation is a working session, in person in Greenwood Village or by video: we run the numbers as they actually are, on both sides, and I tell you what the court is likely to see. Your note reaches my office directly; during business hours we call you back within the hour, run the conflicts check, and set the meeting.