New York Alimony Calculator: Formulas, Duration, and Tax Rules

To estimate spousal support with a New York alimony calculator, you run each spouse’s adjusted income through one of two statutory formulas, take the lower of the two results, and apply the answer to the first $241,000 of the paying spouse’s income (the cap in effect from March 1, 2026). The New York State Unified Court System publishes a free online tool that does the arithmetic for you on its Post-Divorce Maintenance and Child Support Tools page.¹ Whether you use that calculator or work through the math yourself, you need the same handful of inputs and you need to know which formula set applies.

Numbers You Need Before You Calculate

The formula under Domestic Relations Law § 236(B)(6) runs on adjusted income, not gross income. Start with the gross figure from each spouse’s most recent federal tax return, then subtract Social Security and Medicare taxes (FICA) and any New York City or Yonkers local income taxes paid. The remainder is what you enter into the calculator.²

You also need the length of the marriage, counted from the wedding date to the date the divorce summons is served, and you need to know whether child support is being paid and which spouse is the custodial parent. Your most recent IRS Form 1040 and W-2s will usually cover the income side.

Every maintenance case also requires a sworn Statement of Net Worth that lays out income, expenses, assets, and debts. It must be signed under oath before a notary, and inaccurate disclosures carry penalties.³ For a quick estimate the calculator is enough, but the court will eventually want this document.

The Two Formulas and Which One Applies

New York uses two formula sets. One applies when the paying spouse is also the non-custodial parent paying child support. The other applies to every other situation, including cases where no child support is being paid and cases where child support is being paid but the paying spouse is actually the custodial parent. In both sets, the court runs two calculations and uses whichever produces the lower number as the guideline. If the result is zero or negative, no guideline maintenance is owed.

If the Paying Spouse Also Pays Child Support

When the payor is the non-custodial parent paying child support, the percentages are lower on the payor side and higher on the recipient side:²

Calculation A: 20% of the payor’s income (capped at $241,000) minus 25% of the recipient’s income.
Calculation B: 40% of the combined incomes, minus the recipient’s full income.

The lower result is the guideline. The reason the law caps the award this way is to keep the recipient from ending up with more than 40% of the couple’s combined earnings on top of child support.

If No Child Support Is Being Paid

Without child support in the picture (or when the payor is the custodial parent), the payor side carries a higher percentage:²

Calculation A: 30% of the payor’s income (capped at $241,000) minus 20% of the recipient’s income.
Calculation B: 40% of the combined incomes, minus the recipient’s full income.

Again, the lower of the two is the guideline amount, expressed as an annual figure.

Income Above the $241,000 Cap

The cap limits the portion of the payor’s income that the formula touches automatically. If the payor earns more, the court has discretion to award additional maintenance on the excess after weighing factors such as the marital standard of living, each spouse’s future earning capacity, and the tax consequences of the award.² A calculator will give you the guideline on the first $241,000; anything above that is a judgment call.

Using the Court’s Online Calculator

To use the official tool, enter adjusted income for both spouses, indicate whether child support is being paid to the same spouse, and enter the length of the marriage. The calculator runs both formulas, picks the lower, and reports the guideline as an annual figure. You can also run child support alongside guideline maintenance, zero maintenance, or an agreed-upon amount that differs from the guideline.¹

If you prefer paper, the court system publishes the Maintenance Guidelines Worksheet (Form UD-8(2)), which walks through the same math step by step. In an uncontested divorce you file the completed worksheet with your other papers.⁴

One boundary worth knowing: temporary maintenance (paid while the divorce is pending) and post-divorce maintenance use identical formula percentages and the same $241,000 cap, so a single calculator run produces the baseline for both. The duration schedule below applies only to post-divorce awards.

How Long Payments Will Last

An advisory schedule ties the length of post-divorce maintenance to the length of the marriage, using percentage ranges rather than fixed terms:⁵

Up to 15 years of marriage: 15% to 30% of the marriage length. A 10-year marriage yields roughly 18 to 36 months.
More than 15 up to 20 years: 30% to 40% of the marriage length. An 18-year marriage translates to about 5.4 to 7.2 years.
More than 20 years: 35% to 50% of the marriage length. A 25-year marriage could yield 8.75 to 12.5 years.

These ranges are advisory. Where a judge lands within a bracket typically depends on each spouse’s age, health, and earning potential. A 12-year marriage where one spouse hasn’t worked in a decade might sit near the top of the range; one where both spouses kept careers might sit near the bottom.

Why the Guideline Number Is Only a Starting Point

A calculator result is the statutory guideline, not a guaranteed outcome. If a judge finds that the formula produces an unjust or inappropriate result, the court can adjust the amount after weighing 15 statutory factors. The ones most likely to move the number include:⁶

Each spouse’s age and health, including any illness or disability that affects earning ability or need for care.
Earning capacity, including education, training, or career opportunities a spouse gave up during the marriage.
Acts of domestic violence that have limited a spouse’s ability to find or keep meaningful employment.
The standard of living established during the marriage.
Wasteful dissipation of marital assets, including transfers made in anticipation of the divorce.
The availability and cost of health insurance for each spouse.
How the equitable distribution of marital property, and any income it produces, affects each spouse’s finances.
Caregiving responsibilities for children, disabled adult children, or elderly family members that reduced earning capacity.

The statute also lets the court consider any other factor it expressly finds just and proper. When a judge departs from the guideline, the decision has to explain which factors justify the different amount. If your situation involves any of the items above in a significant way, treat the calculator figure as a floor or ceiling to argue from, not the final number.

The New York Tax Wrinkle

Federal and state tax treatment of maintenance no longer match, and that gap changes what a given dollar figure is actually worth. For divorces finalized after December 31, 2018, federal law treats maintenance as tax-neutral: the payor cannot deduct it, and the recipient does not report it as income.

New York decoupled from that change. The state still requires the recipient to include maintenance in New York adjusted gross income, and still lets the payor subtract those payments when calculating state taxable income.⁷ The payor gets a state deduction with no federal deduction; the recipient owes state tax with no federal tax. If you are negotiating a maintenance amount, factor that mismatch into the real after-tax value of the number the calculator produced.

1
New York Courts. Post-Divorce Maintenance and Child Support Tools
2
New York State Senate. New York Code DOM 236 – Special Controlling Provisions; Prior Actions or Proceedings; New Actions or Proceedings
3
New York State Unified Court System. Statement of Net Worth Form
4
New York State Unified Court System. Maintenance Guidelines Worksheet Form UD-8(2)
5
New York State Unified Court System. Advisory Schedule for Duration of Award of Post-Divorce Maintenance
6
New York State Unified Court System. 15 Factors for Post-Divorce Maintenance
7
New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. New York State Decouples from Certain Federal Changes to the Treatment of Alimony and Separate Maintenance Payments