How Colorado calculates spousal maintenance
Ask a family-law paralegal which state actually runs the numbers instead of just shrugging and citing "the factors," and Colorado is one of the first answers you'll get. C.R.S. §14-10-114 gives courts a real calculation: start with 40% of the couple's combined monthly adjusted gross income, then subtract the lower earner's own monthly adjusted gross income. That base figure only applies at full strength if the maintenance award would be deductible to the payor and taxable to the recipient, which, thanks to the 2018 federal tax overhaul, basically never happens anymore for divorces finalized after that point. So in nearly every real case today, the base number gets discounted: 80% of it if combined monthly income is $10,000 or less, or 75% of it if combined monthly income falls between $10,000 and $20,000. Go above $20,000 combined per month (that's $240,000 a year), and the guidelines stop applying altogether. The statute simply doesn't reach higher-income households, leaving the amount entirely to the court's discretion under the same factor list.
Why the discount at all? It traces straight back to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Before 2019, alimony was deductible by the payor and taxable to the recipient, so the original 40%-minus-lower-earner math assumed the government was effectively subsidizing part of the transfer. Once Congress made maintenance non-deductible and non-taxable for post-2018 divorces, Colorado lawmakers built in the 80%/75% discount as a rough offset: the recipient no longer owes tax on what they receive, so the raw calculation gets scaled down to land in a similar real-world range as before. It's a patch, not a coincidence, and it's why any calculator that just applies the flat 40%-minus-lower-earner formula without the discount is quoting an outdated number for anyone divorcing today.
Duration follows its own guideline table, and it's genuinely a sliding scale rather than a flat multiplier. A 3-year marriage (36 months) points to about 11 months of maintenance. Stretch that to 5 years and you're looking at roughly 21 months; 7.5 years lands around 36 months; a 10-year marriage suggests about 54 months; and by 12.5 years the ratio hits its ceiling, 50% of the marriage length, or about 75 months, which then holds steady all the way out to a 20-year marriage (240 months to 120 months, still 50%). Past 20 years, the statute leaves room for either a specified term or a fully indefinite award, but it also tells judges not to go shorter than the 20-year guideline term unless they write down specific findings justifying the cut. Marriages under 3 years fall outside the formal guideline table entirely, though §14-10-114(3)(h) still lets a court step in and award maintenance if the property division alone wouldn't produce a fair result. The judge just has to reason it through case by case instead of reading it off the table.
Here's the part that trips people up: none of this is binding. §14-10-114(3)(e) says so in plain statutory language, stating the guidelines "do not create a presumptive amount or term of maintenance." A judge has to look at the totality of the circumstances and can land above the guideline number, below it, or at zero, so long as the ruling comes with findings that explain why. Treat the calculator above as a strong, statute-based starting point for a negotiation or a mediation session, not as a number you can hold a judge to.
Colorado is also explicitly no-fault when it comes to maintenance. §14-10-114(2) states that any award "shall be made without regard to marital misconduct." Whatever happened during the marriage, an affair, a falling-out, anything else, doesn't factor into the maintenance decision. What does matter is the list in §14-10-114(3)(c): each spouse's financial resources, the marital standard of living, how property got divided, employment and employability, historical earnings patterns, marriage length, any temporary maintenance already paid, age and health, contributions to the marriage or to the other spouse's career, whether a nominal award should be preserved for a future claim, tax consequences, and a catch-all for anything else relevant.
Before any of this math matters, there's an eligibility gate under §14-10-114(3)(d): the requesting spouse has to lack sufficient property to cover reasonable needs and be unable to support themselves through appropriate employment, or be the custodian of a child whose circumstances make outside work inappropriate. Meet that gate, land inside the 3-year and $240,000 boundaries, and you get the full guideline treatment described above.
Last reviewed: July 2026. Statute citations: C.R.S. §14-10-114(2) (no-fault mandate), §14-10-114(3)(b) (guideline formula and duration table), §14-10-114(3)(c) (factors), §14-10-114(3)(d) (eligibility gate), §14-10-114(3)(e) (advisory, non-presumptive nature), §14-10-114(3)(h) (short-marriage discretion).
Primary source: read the official Colorado statute text →
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Colorado have an alimony formula?
Yes, one of the few states with a real statutory calculation. C.R.S. §14-10-114(3)(b) starts with 40% of the parties' combined monthly adjusted gross income minus the lower earner's monthly adjusted gross income, then applies an 80% discount if combined monthly income is $10,000 or less, or a 75% discount if it's between $10,000 and $20,000. Above $20,000/mo combined ($240,000/yr), the guidelines don't apply at all.
Are Colorado's maintenance guidelines binding on the judge?
No. §14-10-114(3)(e) states directly in the statute that the guidelines "do not create a presumptive amount or term of maintenance." The court has discretion to award whatever amount and duration is fair and equitable based on the totality of the circumstances, and must make findings supporting its decision either way.
How long does spousal maintenance last in Colorado?
The guideline duration table runs from about 11 months for a 3-year marriage up to 120 months for a 20-year marriage, capping at 50% of the marriage length once that ratio is reached. For marriages over 20 years, a court can award a specified term or an indefinite term, but generally shouldn't go below the 20-year guideline term without written findings supporting a shorter award.
Do you need to be married a certain number of years to qualify in Colorado?
The formal guidelines apply to marriages of at least 3 years. For shorter marriages, §14-10-114(3)(h) still lets a court award maintenance if property division alone wouldn't produce an equitable result, considering the same kinds of factors informally.
Does marital misconduct affect alimony in Colorado?
No. §14-10-114(2) states that maintenance "shall be made without regard to marital misconduct." Colorado is a no-fault state for maintenance purposes: adultery, cruelty, or other conduct isn't part of the calculation.