Last updated 2026-07-09
TL;DR
New York sets spousal support using a two-part statutory formula under Domestic Relations Law §236-B. For divorces without children, the guideline is 30% of the payor's income minus 20% of the payee's income, capped at 40% of combined income. For divorces with children, it's 25% minus 20%, same cap. There is no state-run online calculator, but the formula is fixed and you can run it yourself.
What formula does New York actually use to calculate alimony?
New York calls it 'maintenance,' not alimony. Same thing, different word. The formula lives in Domestic Relations Law §236-B(6), rewritten in 2015 and adjusted again for the 2019 federal tax change. Courts have to start with the guideline math before they can order anything different, so if you want to predict your outcome, the formula is where you start.
There are two versions. Which one applies depends on whether the couple has children together.
When there are no unemancipated children (the payor is not also paying child support): Step 1: Multiply the payor's income by 30%. Step 2: Multiply the payee's income by 20%. Step 3: Subtract Step 2 from Step 1. That difference is the preliminary guideline amount. Step 4: Check the cap. Add both incomes and multiply by 40%. If the preliminary amount would push the payee's total income (their own income plus maintenance) above 40% of the combined figure, cut maintenance down to whatever keeps the payee at exactly 40%.
When the couple has children and the payor is also paying child support: Same four steps, but use 25% in Step 1 instead of 30%. The 40% combined-income cap still applies [1].
Those percentages only touch income up to a statutory cap. As of 2024 that cap sits at $203,000 of the payor's income [1]. Anything above it is discretionary. The judge can add maintenance on top or decline to, and no formula tells them how much.
Here's the piece people miss. Both numbers you plug in are gross income minus Social Security and Medicare taxes paid. Not raw wages. You subtract FICA first, then run the math [1].
Is there an official New York state alimony calculator online?
No. New York does not run an official maintenance calculator. The Unified Court System publishes child support worksheets, but nothing interactive for spousal maintenance.
The state does host a child support calculator at childsupport.ny.gov, and that tool covers child support only [2]. For maintenance, it's you and the statute.
Private websites offer New York maintenance calculators, and they're fine for a rough estimate. Treat them as a sanity check, never a binding answer. Their inputs may not match your real situation (self-employment income, overtime that comes and goes, pension contributions), and none of them can tell you what a judge will do with income above the cap or with a discretionary adjustment.
Want a number you can trust? Run the formula yourself off your last two tax returns and your most recent pay stubs. Or pay a forensic accountant or attorney for one flat-fee session to confirm it. That single afternoon of work usually beats months of arguing about a figure you could have pinned down early.
How to run the New York alimony calculation yourself: a step-by-step example
Say Spouse A earns $120,000 gross a year and pays $9,180 in Social Security and Medicare taxes. Adjusted income: $110,820.
Say Spouse B earns $40,000 gross and pays $3,060 in FICA. Adjusted income: $36,940.
No children. Here's the math:
| Step | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 30% of Payor (Spouse A) | $110,820 × 0.30 | $33,246 |
| 20% of Payee (Spouse B) | $36,940 × 0.20 | $7,388 |
| Preliminary maintenance | $33,246 − $7,388 | $25,858/year |
| Cap check: 40% of combined | ($110,820 + $36,940) × 0.40 | $59,104 |
| Payee's total if maintenance paid | $36,940 + $25,858 | $62,798 |
| Over cap? | $62,798 > $59,104, yes | Reduce |
| Maintenance after cap reduction | $59,104 − $36,940 | $22,164/year |
Guideline annual maintenance: $22,164, or about $1,847 a month [1].
Now run it again with children in the picture. Swap 30% for 25%:
| Step | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 25% of Payor | $110,820 × 0.25 | $27,705 |
| 20% of Payee | $36,940 × 0.20 | $7,388 |
| Preliminary maintenance | $27,705 − $7,388 | $20,317/year |
| Cap check (same as above) | ($110,820 + $36,940) × 0.40 | $59,104 |
| Payee's total if paid | $36,940 + $20,317 | $57,257 |
| Over cap? | $57,257 < $59,104, no | Use $20,317 |
With children, guideline maintenance drops to $20,317 a year, roughly $1,693 a month [1].
Those numbers are what the judge has to state on the record before they deviate. The formula is the floor of the analysis, not the ceiling.
How long does New York maintenance last?
Duration runs on its own schedule, separate from the amount. Judges lean on guidelines tied to how long the marriage lasted, but the duration schedule is advisory, not binding, which is the opposite of the amount formula [1].
Here's the general schedule courts use as a reference [1]:
| Marriage length | Advisory duration range |
|---|---|
| 0 to 15 years | 15% to 30% of marriage length |
| 15 to 20 years | 30% to 40% of marriage length |
| More than 20 years | 35% to 50% of marriage length |
A ten-year marriage might produce one and a half to three years of maintenance. A twenty-five year marriage might produce nine to twelve and a half years. Starting points, not promises.
Permanent maintenance still exists in New York. Courts rarely order it. You see it when the marriage ran very long, the payee is elderly or disabled, or the payee was out of the workforce for decades. The statute allows it when the factors line up [1].
Maintenance ends automatically the day the payee remarries. Cohabitation does not end it automatically. The payor can petition the court to cut or kill maintenance based on cohabitation, but only if the separation agreement or divorce judgment doesn't already deal with that scenario [3].
What factors can make a judge award more or less than the formula?
The formula gives you a guideline, and the judge must follow it unless they find the amount 'unjust or inappropriate' after weighing the statutory factors [1]. That exact phrase comes from DRL §236-B(6)(e).
The statute lists a long set of factors: the age and health of both spouses; the present and future earning capacity of each; one spouse's need for education or training expenses; the end of a child-bearing role; wasteful dissipation of marital property; the transfer or encumbrance of marital property; the loss of health insurance, pension, or inheritance rights; the tax consequences; the payee's contributions to the payor's career; the standard of living during the marriage; the payee's reduced or lost lifetime earning capacity; and any other factor the court finds just and proper [1].
Plain version. If one spouse gave up a career to raise kids and can't easily get back in, that pushes maintenance up and duration out. If both spouses are young professionals and the income gap is temporary, both amount and duration come down. Misconduct doesn't move the maintenance number in New York's no-fault system, with narrow exceptions for extreme cases [3].
Above the $203,000 cap, the judge has room to do almost anything. A payor earning $600,000 gets a guideline calculation only on the first $203,000. The rest is argued on the factors alone. Manhattan courts in high-income cases often award well above the formula. Courts in lower-cost regions do so less often.
How does New York treat maintenance taxes after the 2019 federal change?
This flipped in 2019 and still trips people up. Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, for divorce agreements executed after December 31, 2018, maintenance is no longer deductible by the payor and no longer taxable to the recipient at the federal level [4].
New York follows the federal treatment. State income tax works the same way: no deduction for the payor, no income for the payee [5].
Agreements finalized before January 1, 2019 keep the old rules. The payor deducts, the payee reports income. Modifying a pre-2019 agreement can reset it to the new rules unless the parties explicitly choose to keep the old tax treatment.
What this means in practice: maintenance is worth more per dollar to recipients now (they keep all of it) and costs payors more (no deduction). New York courts started adjusting guideline amounts to reflect this after 2019, so don't lean on 2016 or 2017 cases to guess what a court will do today. The tax backdrop underneath those older numbers is gone.
Can spouses agree on a different maintenance amount in an uncontested divorce?
Yes. In an uncontested divorce, both spouses agree on every term, maintenance included, or they agree that nobody pays. The court will accept a negotiated number that differs from the guideline as long as the deviation is acknowledged on the record and the court finds the agreement is not unconscionable [1].
Waiving maintenance entirely takes a written waiver that acknowledges what the guideline amount would have been. Both parties have to say, in writing: we know what the formula produces, and we are choosing something else. That acknowledgment is what protects both sides from a challenge down the road.
A solid separation agreement carries the weight here. A good one spells out the amount, the duration, the termination triggers (remarriage, death, a specific date), the modification terms, and the tax treatment. Our guide to a new york state separation agreement walks through what goes in that document.
For couples building their own uncontested paperwork, DivorceClear's $149 document packet includes the forms to memorialize a maintenance agreement or waiver in a format New York courts accept. New York has specific rules for how a maintenance waiver has to be worded, and a form that gets the language wrong can stall your divorce for weeks.
What income counts for the New York maintenance formula?
Income here is wider than your W-2. New York courts count income from every source: wages, salaries, self-employment income, tips, commissions, bonuses, rental income, interest and dividends, pension and retirement income, disability payments, and income someone voluntarily reduced or hid (imputed income) [1][3].
Imputed income does a lot of work. If a spouse was earning $90,000 and quit or cut their hours right before the divorce, a judge can impute $90,000, or more if the court decides they could earn more. Judges do this routinely when they think a party is gaming their income to bend the formula.
Self-employment gets scrutiny. Legitimate business deductions stand. Personal expenses run through the business get added back. In contested cases with a self-employed payor, a subpoena of business records reviewed by a forensic accountant is common.
Overtime is the messy one. Some courts count historical overtime if it was steady and reliable. Others toss it if it's genuinely voluntary and sporadic. Nobody has a clean rule. The closest thing to guidance is case-by-case discretion built on the parties' actual earning history.
Does a prenuptial agreement affect New York alimony?
Yes. A valid prenup in New York can waive, limit, or reshape maintenance completely [3]. New York courts enforce prenups on spousal support as long as the agreement was signed voluntarily, with full financial disclosure, and wasn't unconscionable when signed.
Postnups do the same thing when properly executed. A postnup dealing with maintenance carries the same procedural formality as any marital agreement in New York.
Where maintenance prenups fall apart is duress (handed to someone the night before the wedding with no time to see a lawyer) or a change in circumstances so severe that enforcement would be unconscionable. The Domestic Relations Law lets a court set aside a maintenance waiver in a prenup under those extreme facts. It's rare, but it happens [3].
How does maintenance interact with child support in New York?
They're calculated separately, but they feed each other. When both are in play, child support comes first under the Child Support Standards Act formula, which runs on the payor's income after maintenance is subtracted [2][6]. So if Spouse A pays $20,000 a year in maintenance, child support gets calculated on Spouse A's income minus that $20,000.
The sequence changes both numbers. Maintenance shrinks the child support base. Child support does not shrink the maintenance calculation. A parent receiving both usually ends up better off in total payments than they would under either formula alone, though both caps still bound the total.
For couples handling an uncontested divorce with kids, getting the sequence right on paper is not optional. Courts reject agreements where the math contradicts itself.
Other states do this very differently. If you want a contrast, the guide to state of florida alimony laws shows how another big state handles the same overlap.
Where do you file for divorce in New York and what does it cost?
You file in the Supreme Court of the county where either spouse lives. New York's Supreme Court handles every divorce. There's no separate family court for divorce filings.
The index number fee, the cost to open the case, is $210 in most counties [7]. Serving the summons costs whatever a process server charges, usually $50 to $150. Certified copies of your judgment later run $5 to $10 per page.
If you genuinely can't afford the filing fee, New York lets you apply for a fee waiver (the Poor Person's Order) under CPLR §1101 [8]. You file a supporting affidavit laying out your income and assets. Many counties grant them at or near 125% of the federal poverty level, though the CPLR writes no universal threshold into the statute.
New York's Unified Court System posts self-help resources at nycourts.gov, including the free do-it-yourself 'Uncontested Divorce Packet' [9]. The forms are free and they work. They're also dense. Plenty of pro se filers get them bounced over technical errors in the sworn statements or a missing acknowledgment.
For New York residents filing uncontested, DivorceClear's $149 document packet is a second route. It formats the same substantive content into a cleaner guided workflow. Compare it against the court's free forms before you pick a path.
How does New York maintenance compare to what other states do?
New York is one of the more structured states. It has a codified formula with fixed percentages, a statutory income cap, and an advisory duration schedule. Both parties get a reasonably predictable starting point.
Texas treats spousal maintenance as a last resort. It caps support at $5,000 a month or 20% of the payor's gross income (whichever is less), limits duration to a short window, and makes qualification hard. The full breakdown is in the guide to alimony in the state of texas.
Florida recently overhauled its law, ending permanent alimony for most cases and setting durational formulas. The state of florida alimony laws article covers it in detail.
Washington State uses a purely discretionary standard with no formula at all. Alimony in washington state describes what courts there look for.
New York sits in the middle. More structured than the discretionary states, less restrictive than Texas. The one catch: the $203,000 cap makes high-earner divorces highly unpredictable, which isn't the case in states with no cap at all.
Frequently asked questions
Is there an official New York state alimony calculator I can use online?
No. New York does not publish an official interactive maintenance calculator. The formula is in Domestic Relations Law §236-B, and you can run it yourself with your adjusted gross incomes. Several private websites offer New York-specific tools; they are useful for estimates but should not substitute for running the actual statutory math or getting a professional review if your situation is complex.
What is the income cap for the New York alimony formula in 2024?
The formula applies only to the payor's income up to $203,000 as of 2024. Income above that level is discretionary: a judge can award additional maintenance on top of the formula amount, but there is no percentage or rule governing how much. High earners in contested divorces often see this above-cap issue drive more litigation than any other single factor.
Does New York require a minimum marriage length to get alimony?
No statutory minimum marriage length exists for eligibility. Even a short marriage can result in a maintenance award if the income gap and statutory factors support it. That said, duration is tied to the length of the marriage under the advisory schedule, so a one-year marriage would yield a very short maintenance period even if an award is technically warranted.
Can a New York alimony award be modified after the divorce is final?
Yes, if the original order or agreement allows modification. A substantial change in circumstances (major income shift, serious illness, job loss) is the standard trigger for a modification petition. If the parties agreed in writing that maintenance is non-modifiable, a court generally cannot change it absent extreme circumstances. Fixed agreements drafted in separation agreements carry more finality than court-ordered maintenance.
Does cohabitation end New York maintenance automatically?
Not automatically. Remarriage terminates maintenance by statute. Cohabitation does not have the same automatic effect unless the divorce judgment or separation agreement specifically says so. A payor who believes their ex is cohabitating can petition the court to modify or terminate maintenance, but they have to prove it and win a ruling. Include a cohabitation clause in any negotiated agreement to avoid this ambiguity.
How does New York calculate alimony when one spouse is self-employed?
Courts look at actual self-employment income after legitimate business expenses, then add back personal expenses run through the business. If the court believes income is underreported, it can impute a higher figure based on historical earnings, lifestyle, or industry-standard compensation for someone with the payor's skills. Tax returns for at least two to three years are standard evidence in any case involving self-employment.
Is New York maintenance taxable to the recipient?
For agreements signed after December 31, 2018, no. Federal and New York State tax law both treat post-2018 maintenance as non-deductible to the payor and non-taxable to the recipient. For agreements signed before January 1, 2019, the old rules still apply unless modified, and the parties can elect whether a modification resets the tax treatment.
What happens to alimony if the paying spouse loses their job?
A job loss is a substantial change in circumstances that supports a modification petition. The payor must file with the Supreme Court in the county of the original judgment and show the change is involuntary and significant. Courts do not automatically suspend payments during litigation; the payor is still obligated until a court order says otherwise. Falling behind creates arrears that cannot be retroactively forgiven in New York.
Can spouses waive alimony entirely in a New York uncontested divorce?
Yes. Both spouses can agree that neither will pay maintenance. The court requires a written waiver that acknowledges the guideline amount would have been a specific dollar figure, and both parties must confirm the waiver is voluntary. Without that acknowledgment, the waiver can be challenged. Any uncontested divorce paperwork addressing maintenance should include this language explicitly.
How does the New York maintenance formula differ from child support?
Maintenance uses a two-step percentage formula (30%/25% minus 20%) applied to adjusted gross income up to $203,000, with a 40% combined-income cap. Child support uses the Child Support Standards Act percentages applied to the payor's income after maintenance is subtracted. The two formulas link together: maintenance is calculated first, then child support runs on the reduced income base.
Does fault affect alimony in New York?
Generally no. New York is a no-fault divorce state, and the maintenance formula does not include fault as a factor. Judges focus on the economic factors listed in DRL §236-B. Extreme misconduct like domestic violence can occasionally influence a court's discretion, but this is the exception. Expecting fault to meaningfully shift a maintenance number in most New York divorces is usually unrealistic.
How long does a New York uncontested divorce take from filing to final judgment?
Timeline varies significantly by county. As of recent years, processing times in some downstate counties like New York (Manhattan) have run six months to a year even for uncontested cases with no disputed issues. Upstate counties are often faster, sometimes two to four months. These are estimates; court backlogs shift. Call the clerk's office in your county for current estimates.
Sources
- New York State Legislature, Domestic Relations Law §236-B: Formula percentages (30%/25% minus 20%), 40% combined-income cap, $203,000 income cap, advisory duration schedule, and full statutory factor list for deviation from guideline maintenance
- New York Unified Court System, Matrimonial (Divorce) Self-Help Resources: Maintenance termination on remarriage, cohabitation petitions, prenuptial agreement enforcement, and modification standards
- Internal Revenue Service, Publication 504: Divorced or Separated Individuals: Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, alimony paid under agreements executed after December 31, 2018 is not deductible by the payor and not includible in the recipient's income
- New York State Department of Taxation and Finance: New York State conforms to the post-2018 federal tax treatment of maintenance: no deduction for payor, no taxable income for recipient
- New York State Legislature, Family Court Act §413 (Child Support Standards Act): Child support is calculated on the payor's income after maintenance is subtracted, establishing the interaction between the two formulas
- New York State Unified Court System, Court Fees: Index number fee of $210 to initiate a Supreme Court divorce action in New York
- New York Civil Practice Law and Rules §1101, Poor Person Relief: Litigants who cannot afford filing fees may apply for a Poor Person's Order waiving court costs
- New York Unified Court System, Uncontested Divorce Packet (DIY Forms): New York courts publish a free uncontested divorce forms packet available for pro se filers