Alimony in New York (called maintenance in the statute) is calculated with a two-part formula set out in Domestic Relations Law Section 236B. The court runs both calculations and uses whichever produces the lower number as the presumptive award, applied to the paying spouse’s income up to $241,000 as of March 1, 2026.1NYCOURTS.GOV. What’s New in Matrimonial Legislation, Court Rules and Forms That guideline number is the starting point. A judge can adjust it up or down based on 15 statutory factors, and the duration of payments is calculated separately from the amount.
The Standard Formula
When no child support is being paid, or when the paying spouse is the custodial parent, the calculation works like this:2New York State Senate. New York Domestic Relations Law 236
- Calculation A: 30% of the paying spouse’s income, minus 20% of the receiving spouse’s income.
- Calculation B: 40% of the couple’s combined income, minus the receiving spouse’s income.
- The guideline is whichever result is lower. If both come out at zero or below, the guideline is zero.
Say the paying spouse earns $150,000 and the receiving spouse earns $40,000. Calculation A gives $45,000 minus $8,000, or $37,000. Calculation B gives 40% of $190,000 ($76,000) minus $40,000, or $36,000. The guideline is $36,000 per year, roughly $3,000 per month.2New York State Senate. New York Domestic Relations Law 236
When Child Support Is Also Being Paid
If the paying spouse is the non-custodial parent paying child support, Calculation A uses different percentages. This is where people run the wrong numbers and overestimate what they owe or expect.
- Calculation A: 20% of the paying spouse’s income, minus 25% of the receiving spouse’s income.
- Calculation B stays the same: 40% of combined income minus the receiving spouse’s income.
- Guideline is again the lower result.
Using the same $150,000 and $40,000 incomes, Calculation A now yields $30,000 minus $10,000, or $20,000. Calculation B stays at $36,000. The guideline drops to $20,000 per year, because child support already moves money toward the lower-earning household.2New York State Senate. New York Domestic Relations Law 236
Income Above the $241,000 Cap
The formula only runs on the paying spouse’s income up to $241,000. New York adjusts this cap every two years based on the Consumer Price Index; the current figure took effect March 1, 2026.1NYCOURTS.GOV. What’s New in Matrimonial Legislation, Court Rules and Forms
For higher earners, the court first calculates a baseline award on income up to the cap. On income above that threshold, there’s no formula. The judge looks at the statutory factors and decides whether additional maintenance is appropriate and how much. Standard of living during the marriage, the receiving spouse’s needs, and the length of the marriage tend to carry the most weight in those decisions.2New York State Senate. New York Domestic Relations Law 236
Factors That Move the Number
The formula result is presumptive, not final. Domestic Relations Law Section 236B lists 15 factors a judge must consider, and a deviation from the guideline requires a written explanation of which factors justified the change.3New York State Unified Court System. 15 Factors for Post-Divorce Maintenance Pursuant to Domestic Relations Law 236B(6)(e)(1) The ones that show up most often:
- Age and health of each spouse. Serious illness or proximity to retirement changes what the receiving spouse can realistically earn.
- Current income and future earning capacity, including any history of limited workforce participation.
- The cost and time needed for the receiving spouse to get education or training to become self-supporting.
- The standard of living the couple maintained during the marriage.
- Wasteful dissipation or improper transfer of marital assets, especially in anticipation of divorce.
- The receiving spouse’s contributions as a homemaker and parent, particularly where those contributions enabled the other spouse’s career.
Judges can move either direction. A receiving spouse who left a professional career to raise children for 18 years may get more than the formula. A receiving spouse with strong earning potential coming out of a short marriage may get less.
How Long Payments Last
Duration is calculated separately from the dollar amount. New York’s advisory schedule ties length of maintenance to length of marriage:4New York State Unified Court System. Appendix E – Advisory Schedule for Duration of Award of Post-Divorce Maintenance
- Marriages up to 15 years: 15% to 30% of the length of the marriage.
- Marriages over 15 and up to 20 years: 30% to 40%.
- Marriages over 20 years: 35% to 50%.
A 12-year marriage produces a range of roughly 1.8 to 3.6 years of payments. A 25-year marriage falls between 8.75 and 12.5 years. These ranges are advisory, and the same 15 factors apply. In long marriages, the court can award non-durational maintenance with no set end date. The statute allows payments “for a definite or indefinite period of time,” so open-ended awards are legally available, though uncommon.2New York State Senate. New York Domestic Relations Law 236
Temporary Maintenance During the Divorce
A lower-earning spouse can receive support while the divorce is pending. Temporary maintenance (pendente lite) uses the same two-part structure and the same percentages as the post-divorce formula: 30%/20% standard, or 20%/25% when the paying spouse is also paying child support.2New York State Senate. New York Domestic Relations Law 236
One difference matters: there’s a self-support floor. If the guideline would drop the paying spouse’s income below the self-support reserve, the temporary award is reduced so the payor keeps at least that minimum. Temporary maintenance ends automatically when the divorce is finalized, and the temporary amount does not predict or constrain the final award. They are independent calculations.
Taxes on the Payments
For any divorce or separation agreement executed after December 31, 2018, maintenance payments have no federal tax effect on either party. The paying spouse cannot deduct them, and the receiving spouse does not report them as income.5IRS. Divorce or Separation May Have an Effect on Taxes
Divorces finalized before 2019 generally still follow the old rules, where the payor deducted and the recipient reported income, unless both parties modified the agreement and expressly opted into the current treatment. If you are running numbers for a 2026 divorce, assume the paying spouse bears the full tax cost on the income used to fund maintenance, and negotiate accordingly.