SPOUSAL MAINTENANCE GUIDANCE IN WOODLAND PARK
Moran, Allen & Associates Family Law represents Woodland Park and Teller County spouses seeking, opposing, modifying, or enforcing spousal maintenance in the Fourth Judicial District. Call our Woodland Park office at (719) 686-7554 for a free consultation.
Key Takeaways
- Colorado calls it spousal maintenance, not alimony. It is governed by C.R.S. § 14-10-114 and is never automatic.
- Advisory guidelines apply to marriages of at least three years with combined income up to $240,000 a year. Outside that range the court decides on the statutory factors alone.
- For decrees entered after 2018, maintenance is not deductible to the payer or taxable to the recipient.
- Seasonal, self-employment, and remote-work income common in Teller County are where most maintenance disputes are actually fought.
ON THIS PAGE
- What Spousal Maintenance Is
- The Threshold the Court Applies First
- The Advisory Guideline Formula
- The Statutory Factors
- Tax Treatment
- Temporary Maintenance During the Case
- When Maintenance Ends
- Modifying Maintenance
- Income Questions in Teller County
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Sources
WHAT SPOUSAL MAINTENANCE IS
Spousal maintenance is support paid by one spouse to the other in connection with a divorce or legal separation. Colorado law uses that term; most people say alimony. It is separate from child support, which is paid for the child and calculated under different rules.
Maintenance is governed by C.R.S. § 14-10-114. It can be temporary while the case is pending, part of the permanent orders, or modified later. It is not awarded in every divorce, and no spouse is entitled to it simply because of the length of the marriage or a difference in incomes. Our Woodland Park family law office handles maintenance claims in divorce and legal separation cases filed in Teller County.
THE THRESHOLD THE COURT APPLIES FIRST
Before any formula is applied, the court must find that the spouse requesting maintenance lacks sufficient property, including property awarded in the divorce, to provide for reasonable needs, and is unable to support himself or herself through appropriate employment, or is the custodian of a child whose condition makes outside employment inappropriate.
If that threshold is not met, no maintenance is awarded regardless of what the guideline formula would produce. If it is met, the court moves to the amount and term, using the advisory guidelines where they apply and the statutory factors in every case.
THE ADVISORY GUIDELINE FORMULA
Colorado's advisory guidelines apply when the marriage lasted at least three years and the parties' combined adjusted gross income is $240,000 a year or less. They are advisory. The court may follow them, adjust them, or reject them, and must explain its reasoning.
The guideline amount is 40 percent of the parties' combined monthly adjusted gross income minus the lower-earning spouse's monthly adjusted gross income. The result is capped so that the recipient's own income plus maintenance does not exceed 40 percent of the combined income.
Because maintenance stopped being tax-deductible for decrees after 2018, the statute then reduces that figure: to 80 percent of the calculated amount when combined income is $10,000 a month or less, and to 75 percent when combined income is between $10,000 and $20,000 a month.
The guideline term is a percentage of the length of the marriage, starting at 31 percent for a three-year marriage and rising to 50 percent at twenty years. For marriages of twenty years or more the court may order maintenance for a specified term or indefinitely.
A worked example: spouses married twelve years, one earning $7,000 a month and the other $3,000. Forty percent of $10,000 is $4,000; minus the lower income of $3,000 leaves $1,000; reduced to 80 percent is $800 a month. The guideline term for a 144-month marriage is about 43 percent of the marriage, roughly 62 months. Those are the starting numbers for negotiation, not the answer.
THE STATUTORY FACTORS
Whether or not the guidelines apply, the court considers the factors listed in C.R.S. § 14-10-114(3)(c): each spouse's financial resources including property awarded in the divorce, the lifestyle during the marriage, the distribution of marital property, each spouse's income, employment, and employability, whether a spouse's earning capacity was reduced by caring for the home or children, the age and health of each spouse, contributions to the other spouse's education or career, and the length of the marriage.
Colorado also directs courts to consider whether one spouse has engaged in domestic abuse or coercive control in the marriage when deciding maintenance. That is a relatively recent addition to the statute and it is often overlooked in settlement discussions.
TAX TREATMENT
For divorce and separation instruments executed after December 31, 2018, maintenance is not deductible by the payer and is not included in the recipient's income for federal tax purposes. Colorado follows the federal treatment.
Any article, calculator, or settlement proposal that assumes a deduction for the payer or income to the recipient is using pre-2019 law. The 80 and 75 percent reductions in the Colorado guideline exist precisely because of this change.
TEMPORARY MAINTENANCE DURING THE CASE
A divorce in Teller County commonly takes six months to a year when contested. A spouse without access to income or accounts cannot wait that long. Temporary maintenance can be ordered at a temporary orders hearing early in the case, using the same guideline framework, to cover the mortgage, utilities, insurance, and living expenses until permanent orders.
Temporary orders set expectations for the rest of the case, and they are decided on the financial disclosures both spouses file at the beginning. Accurate, complete disclosures at that stage matter more than most people expect.
WHEN MAINTENANCE ENDS
Under C.R.S. § 14-10-122(2)(a), maintenance ends when either spouse dies, when the term set in the order expires, when the recipient remarries or enters a civil union, or when the court orders otherwise. Unless the agreement says so, it does not end automatically when the recipient begins cohabiting.
Retirement does not end maintenance by itself. When the paying spouse retires at or after full Social Security retirement age, the statute presumes the retirement is in good faith, which supports a motion to modify. The payer still has to file that motion; stopping payment without an order creates arrears.
MODIFYING MAINTENANCE
Maintenance can be modified when circumstances have changed so substantially and continuously that the existing terms are unfair. Job loss, disability, retirement, or a large change in either spouse's income are the usual grounds. The modification takes effect from the date the motion is filed, so delay has a cost.
Spouses can agree in the decree that maintenance is contractual and non-modifiable. That gives both sides certainty and removes the safety valve. Before agreeing to non-modifiable terms, each spouse should understand what a job loss or a health crisis would mean under an order that cannot be changed.
The Colorado Judicial Branch explains the process to change or end spousal maintenance. For the broader post-decree picture, see our Woodland Park post-decree modifications page.
INCOME QUESTIONS IN TELLER COUNTY
The guideline formula is arithmetic. The dispute is almost always about the inputs.
Teller County incomes are irregular in ways the formula does not anticipate. Construction and trades income drops in winter. Tourism income peaks in summer. A spouse who works remotely for an out-of-state employer may have bonus or equity compensation that does not appear on a pay stub. A spouse who owns a small business controls what the business reports as income.
For self-employed spouses, the court looks past the tax return to gross receipts, business bank records, and the personal expenses run through the business. For spouses with variable pay, several years of records establish a realistic average. For a spouse who is not working or is working below capacity, the court can impute income based on what that spouse could reasonably earn given the local job market, which in Teller County often means the Colorado Springs job market and a commute.
Property matters too. A spouse who keeps a mountain home with equity but no liquidity has a different maintenance need than one who receives the same value in retirement accounts. Our Woodland Park divorce page covers how property division and maintenance are decided together.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT SPOUSAL MAINTENANCE IN WOODLAND PARK
Is Spousal Maintenance the Same as Alimony?
Yes. Colorado statutes and court orders use "maintenance." The concept is what most people mean by alimony.
Is Maintenance Automatic in a Colorado Divorce?
No. The court must first find that the requesting spouse cannot meet reasonable needs through property and appropriate employment. Only then does it consider amount and term.
How Is Maintenance Calculated in Colorado?
For marriages of three to twenty years with combined income up to $240,000, the advisory formula is 40 percent of combined monthly income minus the lower earner's income, reduced to 80 or 75 percent depending on income level, for a term between 31 and 50 percent of the marriage's length. The court may depart from that result based on the statutory factors.
Is Maintenance Taxable?
Not for decrees entered after December 31, 2018. The payer receives no deduction and the recipient reports no income.
Can Maintenance Be Modified?
Yes, unless the decree makes it non-modifiable. The standard is a substantial and continuing change that makes the existing terms unfair, and the change runs from the filing date of the motion.
Does Maintenance End If My Former Spouse Moves In With Someone?
Not automatically. Colorado's termination events are death, expiration of the term, remarriage or civil union of the recipient, and court order. Cohabitation ends maintenance only if the agreement or order says so.
My Spouse Is Self-Employed. How Is Income Determined?
From gross receipts, business bank records, and tax returns, with personal expenses paid through the business added back. This is the situation where discovery and, sometimes, a forensic accountant change the result.
SOURCES
- Colorado General Assembly, Colorado Revised Statutes 2024, Title 14, Domestic Matters (C.R.S. §§ 14-10-114, 14-10-122)
- Colorado Judicial Branch, Divorce and Separation
- Colorado Judicial Branch, Change or End Spousal Support