> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://blog.denverdivorce.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # How Colorado's Maintenance Formula Works — and When Judges Ignore It - URL: https://blog.denverdivorce.com/colorado-maintenance-formula/ - Published: 2026-09-09T14:47:41.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-19T05:32:32.000Z - Description: Colorado has an advisory formula for spousal maintenance, but it is advisory for a reason. For higher-income couples the guideline stops applying and maintenance becomes an argument about lifestyle, earning capacity, and preparation. - Author: Aaron Herzberg - Tags: Support, Wealth Planning It is usually the first question a client asks, sometimes before sitting down: "How much will maintenance be?" Colorado is one of the states that answers with a formula — and then immediately qualifies the answer. Spousal maintenance in Colorado is governed by C.R.S. § 14-10-114\. The statute contains an advisory guideline for both the amount and the duration of maintenance. It also makes clear that the guideline is a starting point for the court's analysis, not the finish line. Understanding both halves of that sentence is the key to predicting an outcome. ## The Threshold Question Comes First Before any formula applies, the court must find that the spouse requesting maintenance actually needs it: that he or she lacks sufficient property, including the marital property being awarded, to provide for reasonable needs, and is unable to support himself or herself through appropriate employment. In a case with a large property division, that threshold question can be the whole fight. A spouse who walks away with several million dollars in income-producing assets may not qualify for maintenance at all, regardless of what the formula would produce. ## The Guideline Amount For couples whose combined annual adjusted gross income is at or below the statutory ceiling — currently $240,000 — the guideline amount starts with a simple calculation. Take 40 percent of the parties' combined monthly adjusted gross income. Subtract the lower-earning spouse's monthly adjusted gross income. The difference, if positive, is the starting figure. If the lower earner already makes 40 percent or more of the combined total, the guideline amount is zero. There is then a tax adjustment. For orders entered after 2018, maintenance is no longer deductible to the paying spouse or taxable to the recipient for federal income tax purposes, and the statute reduces the guideline figure to reflect that: to 80 percent of the calculated amount when combined monthly income is $10,000 or less, and to 75 percent when combined monthly income is between $10,000 and $20,000. A simple illustration: one spouse earns $15,000 per month and the other earns $3,000\. Combined income is $18,000; 40 percent is $7,200; subtracting the lower earner's $3,000 leaves $4,200; applying the 75 percent adjustment produces a guideline amount of $3,150 per month. Older rules of thumb that skip the last step no longer match today's numbers. ## The Guideline Term Duration is set by a statutory table keyed to the length of the marriage. The table applies to marriages of at least three years and up to twenty. It expresses the term as a percentage of the marriage's length, rising from roughly 31 percent for a three-year marriage to 50 percent at twelve and a half years and beyond. In practical terms, an eleven-year marriage suggests a term of about five years. For marriages longer than twenty years, the court may award maintenance for a specified term or for an indefinite period. ## Why "Advisory" Is the Most Important Word in the Statute Here is what most people miss. The statute says in terms that the guidelines "do not create a presumptive amount or term of maintenance," and that the court "has discretion to determine the award of maintenance that is fair and equitable to both parties based upon the totality of the circumstances." The court must consider the guideline, but it must also consider the statutory factors and reach its own conclusion. Those factors include: - The financial resources of each spouse, including the actual or potential income from the property awarded - The lifestyle established during the marriage - The distribution of marital property, including whether income-producing assets were awarded - Each spouse's income, employment, and employability, and any reasonable need for education or training - The age and health of the parties - The duration of the marriage - Contributions to the marriage, including homemaking and support of the other spouse's career Judges regularly depart from the guideline when the factors point elsewhere, and they must make findings when they do. A deviation is not a failure of the system; it is the system working as designed. ## Above the Ceiling, Maintenance Is Argued, Not Calculated When the parties' combined income exceeds the statutory cap, the formula does not apply at all. The court still considers the guideline term and the factors, but there is no presumptive number. In those cases — which describe a large share of the divorces we handle — maintenance is a function of evidence: what the marital lifestyle actually cost, what each spouse can realistically earn, how the property division changes the picture, and how persuasively each side presents the numbers. This is where preparation decides outcomes. A well-documented lifestyle analysis, a credible earning-capacity assessment, and a property division designed with maintenance in mind will move the result far more than any formula. ## Two Practical Notes Maintenance can be modified later if circumstances change substantially and continuingly, unless the parties agree in writing that it is non-modifiable — an agreement worth thinking hard about on both sides. And maintenance ordinarily ends on the death of either party or the remarriage of the recipient, unless the parties agree otherwise. ## Talk to a Denver Divorce Attorney Who Handles Complex Estates Aaron Herzberg is a divorce attorney in Greenwood Village, Colorado, serving Denver and the Front Range, with more than 30 years of trial experience and a practice focused on high-net-worth and financially complex divorce. If your household income sits above the guideline ceiling, the maintenance question in your case will be won on preparation, and that work should start early. [Request a Consultation](https://denverdivorce.com/contact.html?ref=blog.denverdivorce.com#consult) or call 303-507-5529 This publication is attorney advertising. It is educational information only, it is not legal advice, and it may not reflect the most current legal developments. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. No attorney-client relationship exists until a conflicts check is complete and both parties have signed a written engagement agreement. Read the full guides on DenverDivorce.com: [The Colorado Maintenance Calculator](https://denverdivorce.com/practice-areas/colorado-maintenance-calculator.html?ref=blog.denverdivorce.com) and [Spousal Maintenance in Colorado](https://denverdivorce.com/practice-areas/spousal-maintenance.html?ref=blog.denverdivorce.com).