ARS 25-319: Arizona Spousal Maintenance Factors and Duration

Arizona spousal maintenance, the state’s term for alimony, is governed by ARS 25-319. To receive it, a spouse must first meet at least one of five qualifying grounds; once qualified, the amount and duration are set using a standardized Spousal Maintenance Calculator maintained by the Arizona Supreme Court, guided by thirteen statutory factors.¹ A 2022 amendment introduced that calculator, and the most recent version of the guidelines took effect on September 1, 2025.

Who Qualifies

Maintenance is not automatic. Under ARS 25-319(A), the spouse asking for support must show one of five things:¹

They lack sufficient property, including their share of the marital estate, to meet their reasonable needs.
They lack earning ability in the labor market adequate to be self-sufficient.
They are caring for a child whose age or condition makes it unreasonable to expect them to work outside the home.
They contributed significantly to the other spouse’s education, training, or career, or gave up their own income and career opportunities for the other spouse’s benefit.
The marriage lasted a long time and the spouse’s age realistically prevents adequate employment.

Only one ground has to apply, but stronger evidence across multiple grounds makes a more persuasive case. Documentation matters from the start, because the court decides on your actual circumstances rather than your arguments about them.

When earning ability is contested, either side can hire a vocational expert. These evaluations weigh education, work history, skills, health, age, and the local job market to estimate what the requesting spouse could realistically earn, and how much retraining they would need to get there. Courts credit these reports because they replace speculation with evidence.

How Amount and Duration Are Calculated

The 2022 amendment to ARS 25-319(B) directed the Arizona Supreme Court to develop standardized guidelines. The resulting Spousal Maintenance Calculator now produces recommended ranges for both the amount and the duration of an award.² The statute treats the calculator’s output as the presumed award, and a judge who departs from it must find in writing that applying the guidelines would be inappropriate or unjust.¹ Compared with the old system, where outcomes varied widely from courtroom to courtroom, results are now more predictable.

The guidelines are designed to award maintenance “only for a period of time and in an amount necessary to enable the receiving spouse to become self-sufficient.” Running your numbers through the calculator before a hearing gives you a realistic preview of what to expect.

The Thirteen Factors

The calculator draws on the factors ARS 25-319(B) requires the court to weigh together. No single factor controls; the court looks at all of them:¹

The standard of living the couple maintained during the marriage.
The duration of the marriage.
The age, employment history, earning ability, and physical and emotional condition of the requesting spouse.
The paying spouse’s ability to meet their own needs while paying maintenance.
The comparative financial resources and earning abilities of the two spouses.
The requesting spouse’s contribution to the other’s earning ability.
The extent to which the requesting spouse reduced their own income or career opportunities for the other spouse.
Each party’s ability to contribute to the future educational costs of mutual children.
The requesting spouse’s financial resources, including marital property awarded to them and their ability to meet their own needs.
The time and cost of any education or training the requesting spouse needs to become employable.
Excessive spending, destruction, concealment, or fraudulent disposal of shared marital property.
The cost of health insurance for the requesting spouse, and any savings the paying spouse gains by dropping family coverage.
Damages and judgments from a criminal conviction where the other spouse or a child was the victim.

Health insurance is one people often overlook. Coverage you had through your spouse’s employer plan ends with the divorce, and the court can account for what replacement coverage will cost.

What Courts Ignore: Marital Misconduct

ARS 25-319(C) states that a maintenance order must be made without regard to marital misconduct.¹ Infidelity, verbal abuse, or other bad behavior during the marriage cannot increase or decrease the award. The one narrow exception is the criminal-conduct factor above, which applies only when a spouse or child was the victim. Otherwise, Arizona treats maintenance as a purely financial question.

How Long Payments Last

Unless the decree or a written agreement says otherwise, maintenance ends automatically when either spouse dies or when the receiving spouse remarries.³ The paying spouse’s estate generally owes nothing after death, and remarriage creates a new financial relationship that replaces the old one.

Spouses can override these defaults in writing. An agreement might require maintenance to survive the payor’s death, funded through life insurance, or specify that remarriage does not automatically end the obligation. Without that specific language, death and remarriage are the two automatic cutoffs.

Cohabitation Is Not Remarriage

Moving in with a new romantic partner does not end maintenance. ARS 25-327(B) terminates support on remarriage, not cohabitation, and living with someone new does not by itself give the paying spouse grounds to cut off payments.³ Cohabitation carries no legal duty of support the way marriage does. If cohabitation genuinely reduces the receiving spouse’s financial needs, the paying spouse can try to argue that as a change in circumstances warranting modification, but that is a harder case than most people assume.

Modifying an Order Later

By default, every Arizona maintenance order is modifiable. The court keeps jurisdiction for the entire period payments are being made.¹ Either side can ask the court to change the amount or duration if circumstances shift significantly.

The exception is a written agreement between the parties that the maintenance provisions cannot be modified. Under ARS 25-319(D), if both spouses consent, the decree can state that maintenance terms are final. A non-modifiable order stays fixed even if the paying spouse loses their job or the receiving spouse comes into money. Courts will not revisit it. That choice cannot be undone later, so understand the long-term risk before agreeing to it.

To modify a modifiable order, you must show a “substantial and continuing change in circumstances” since the order was entered.³ Wanting to pay less is not enough. You need evidence of a real shift, such as an involuntary job loss, a serious health condition, or the receiving spouse gaining substantially higher income. Courts examine whether the change was voluntary or involuntary, how long it has lasted, and whether it is likely to continue. A dip in income from voluntarily switching careers is treated very differently from a layoff.

Procedurally, Arizona Rule of Family Law Procedure 91.1 requires your petition to include a statement of facts supporting the claimed change, an updated Affidavit of Financial Information, a proposed Spousal Maintenance Calculator worksheet, proof of income from all sources, and documents relevant to the statutory factors.⁴

Enforcement When Payments Stop

If the paying spouse falls behind, the most common tool is an income withholding order under ARS 25-504. Either party files a verified request with the clerk of the superior court, and the clerk issues the order without a hearing or advance notice to the paying spouse.⁵ Once served on the employer, the employer must begin withholding maintenance from the payor’s paycheck. Total withholding for support and maintenance is capped at half of the payor’s disposable earnings per pay period.

The court can also hold a delinquent spouse in contempt. Willful refusal to pay a court order can lead to fines, an order to pay all overdue amounts, and in extreme cases jail time. Courts can seize financial assets, including rents and profits from real estate. For self-employed spouses without a traditional employer to garnish, the court may order creation of a trust account the receiving spouse can draw from if payments stop.

Tax Treatment

For any divorce or separation agreement finalized after December 31, 2018, spousal maintenance is tax-neutral: the paying spouse cannot deduct payments, and the receiving spouse does not report them as income.⁶ Arizona follows this federal rule. Without the old deduction, the after-tax cost of a given monthly payment is higher for the payor than it would have been before 2019.

If you have a pre-2019 agreement and later modify it, the new tax rules apply to the modification only if the modification expressly says so.⁶ Otherwise, the original pre-2019 treatment (deductible for the payor, taxable to the recipient) carries forward. Watch that language closely when modifying older orders.

Filing, Documentation, and Payment

A request for maintenance is filed as part of a petition for dissolution of marriage or legal separation, submitted to the clerk of the superior court in your county. The statewide filing fee is $261, though counties add surcharges: in Maricopa County the total is $376.⁷ After filing, you must formally serve the other spouse. Most people use a private process server, which typically runs $50 to $150. Anyone over 18 who is not a party to the case may serve papers, but a professional is more reliable.

Once served, the court usually schedules a resolution management conference or a temporary orders hearing. Temporary maintenance orders can be issued while the divorce is pending. If the parties do not settle, the case proceeds to trial, where the judge issues a decree specifying the monthly amount, the duration, and the payment method.

The backbone of any maintenance case is the Affidavit of Financial Information, a sworn form required by the Rules of Family Law Procedure. Both parties must complete it, and figures are signed under penalty of perjury. The form covers monthly income, monthly expenses, property values, and outstanding debts. Supporting documents must include your two most recent pay stubs, complete federal tax returns for the last three years with all schedules and attachments, and all W-2 and 1099 forms from that period. Self-employed spouses must also produce their business’s federal tax returns for the last three years.⁸ Every figure on the affidavit should trace back to a bill, bank statement, or pay record.

Payments usually flow through Arizona’s Support Payment Clearinghouse, which receives and disburses maintenance funds unless the court specifically orders direct payment between spouses.⁹ The clearinghouse charges a monthly handling fee that the court includes in the order, and it produces a paper trail of every payment, which protects both sides if a dispute arises later.

Attorney Fees

Under ARS 25-324, the court can order one spouse to contribute to the other’s legal costs based on two things: the financial resources of both parties and the reasonableness of each side’s conduct during the case.¹⁰ Where one spouse has significantly more resources and the other has acted reasonably, the wealthier spouse may be ordered to help cover attorney fees, deposition costs, and other litigation expenses.

The statute also addresses bad-faith litigation. If a court finds that a petition was not filed in good faith, lacked factual or legal basis, or was filed to harass or run up costs, the court must award reasonable fees and costs to the other side.¹⁰ The provision exists to discourage frivolous modification petitions and drawn-out proceedings used as pressure tactics.

1
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 25-319 – Maintenance; Guidelines; Computation Factors
2
Arizona Judicial Branch. Spousal Maintenance Guidelines
3
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 25-327 – Modification and Termination of Provisions for Maintenance
4
New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. Rule 91.1 – Post-Judgment Petition to Modify Spousal Maintenance or Child Support
5
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 25-504 – Order of Assignment; Ex Parte Order of Assignment
6
Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 452, Alimony and Separate Maintenance
7
Arizona Judicial Branch. Superior Court Filing Fees
8
New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. Rules of Family Law Procedure, Form 2 – Affidavit of Financial Information
9
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 25-510 – Receiving and Disbursing Support and Maintenance Monies
10
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 25-324 – Attorney Fees