How Arizona calculates spousal maintenance
Arizona is one of the very few states that actually built a working calculator into its spousal maintenance law, and it happened recently. In September 2022, the legislature amended A.R.S. § 25-319 to direct the Arizona Supreme Court to create statewide Spousal Maintenance Guidelines. The court delivered: the guidelines were approved June 30, 2023 and took effect July 10, 2023 under Administrative Order 2023-119, replacing what had been a purely discretionary, no-formula system with an actual computerized calculator that produces both an amount and a duration.
The methodology runs in three steps. First, the calculator adds up each spouse's actual income plus any income a court has attributed to them — say, if a spouse is voluntarily underemployed — into a combined "Spousal Maintenance Income" figure. Second, it takes the difference between the two spouses' incomes and multiplies that gap by an Estimated Spousal Support Percentage. That percentage isn't one fixed number for every case; it's banded, meaning it scales depending on where the parties' combined income falls. Third, the resulting annual support obligation gets multiplied by a Guideline Duration, expressed in years and itself scaled to how long the couple was married, to produce the total guideline obligation. Once that number comes out, § 25-319 makes it the presumptive award — a court has to make written findings that applying the guidelines would be inappropriate or unjust before it can order something different.
The guidelines got a real update in 2025. Administrative Order 2025-101 removed the principal portion of mortgage payments from the income calculation, pushed the income threshold that triggers an adjustment up to $175,000, and cut the maximum adjustment percentage down to 70%. Because the exact percentage bands and adjustment mechanics aren't published in a single plain-language table, the calculator above illustrates the same three-step methodology using an approximate percentage schedule rather than reproducing the court's precise figures — for a number you can rely on in an actual filing, run it through the official AZCourts.gov calculator directly.
Duration follows its own guideline ranges tied to marriage length. Confirmed examples: marriages up to 24 months top out at 12 months of maintenance, and marriages from 24 up to 60 months top out at 36 months. These ranges continue scaling upward for longer marriages, though they generally aren't subject to deviation on their own — the two built-in exceptions are a disability of the requesting spouse, which can extend duration, and the so-called "Rule of 65": if the requesting spouse is over 42, the marriage lasted more than 16 years, and their age plus the marriage length adds up to 65 or more, duration can extend beyond the standard guideline range.
On fault: § 25-319 requires maintenance to be ordered without regard to marital misconduct, consistent with Arizona's no-fault, community-property system. The one place conduct still matters is economic — excessive or abnormal spending, destroying, hiding, or fraudulently disposing of community or jointly held property is an explicit statutory factor, and it can be grounds for a court to deviate from the guideline amount even though an ordinary affair, on its own, changes nothing.
Arizona's guideline system remains the newest and most structurally significant change among the states in this batch — nothing else here replaced a discretionary system with an actual calculator this recently.
Last reviewed: July 2026. Statute/order citations: A.R.S. § 25-319 (eligibility, factors, guideline authority); Arizona Supreme Court Administrative Order 2023-119 (Spousal Maintenance Guidelines); Administrative Order 2025-101 (2025 calculator update).
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Arizona have a real spousal maintenance formula?
Yes, since 2023. A.R.S. § 25-319 directed the Arizona Supreme Court to create statewide Spousal Maintenance Guidelines, adopted via Administrative Order 2023-119, effective July 10, 2023. The guideline amount must be the award unless the court makes written findings that applying it would be inappropriate or unjust.
How does the Arizona Spousal Maintenance Guidelines calculator work?
It combines each spouse's actual and court-attributed income into a Spousal Maintenance Income figure, takes the income difference between the parties, multiplies it by an Estimated Spousal Support Percentage that scales with the parties' combined income band, and then multiplies that annual support obligation by a Guideline Duration in years tied to marriage length.
What changed in the 2025 update to Arizona's maintenance calculator?
Administrative Order 2025-101 removed the principal portion of mortgage payments from the calculation, raised the income threshold before an adjustment applies to $175,000, and reduced the maximum adjustment percentage to 70%.
How long does spousal maintenance last in Arizona?
Duration follows guideline ranges tied to marriage length — for example, up to 12 months for marriages up to 24 months, and up to 36 months for marriages from 24 to 60 months, with ranges scaling upward for longer marriages. Duration can extend further under the disability exception or the "Rule of 65" (age plus marriage length totaling 65 or more, with the requesting spouse over 42 and the marriage over 16 years).
Does adultery affect spousal maintenance in Arizona?
No, as a general rule — § 25-319 requires maintenance to be ordered without regard to marital misconduct. The narrow exception is economic misconduct: excessive spending, destruction, concealment, or fraudulent disposal of community property is an explicit statutory factor that can justify deviating from the guideline amount.