Spousal maintenance in New York
New York does not leave maintenance to argument. There is a statutory formula, it runs on income up to $241,000, and knowing what it produces is what lets two people agree instead of litigate.
The cap went up on March 1, 2026.The maintenance payor income cap moved from $228,000 to $241,000. A good deal of what is published about New York maintenance still quotes the old figure.
Why the formula matters even when you agree
People arriving at an uncontested divorce often assume the guideline is irrelevant to them, because nobody is fighting. It is the reverse. The formula is the number a judge would have reached, which makes it the baseline any agreement is measured against, and New York requires your agreement to show you knew it before you departed from it.
Put plainly: you are free to agree to more, less or nothing at all. You are not free to agree without knowing.
The guideline calculation
Two formulas are run, and the lower of the two results is the guideline amount. Which pair you use depends on one thing, whether the person paying maintenance is also the one paying child support.
Where the maintenance payor also pays child support
- 20% of the payor’s income, minus 25% of the payee’s income
- 40% of the combined income, minus the payee’s income
Where the maintenance payor does not pay child support
- 30% of the payor’s income, minus 20% of the payee’s income
- 40% of the combined income, minus the payee’s income
In both cases, take the lower result. If it comes out at or below zero, the guideline amount is zero. The calculation runs on the payor’s income up to $241,000, the cap that took effect on March 1, 2026, replacing $228,000.
The court system publishes its own calculator, and it is the one the forms are built around. There is no advantage to using anybody else’s.
Want to know what the formula produces for you?
Bring last year's figures to a free consultation and we will run it.
Income above the cap
Income over $241,000 is not ignored. It is handled differently. Above the cap a court has discretion to award more, guided by a list of statutory factors: the length of the marriage, the age and health of both people, present and future earning capacity, the need for training or education, care of children, and the standard of living established during the marriage, among others.
In an uncontested case, that discretion is yours instead of a judge’s. Two people who agree can decide what happens above the cap and write it down.
How long it runs
New York publishes an advisory schedule tied to the length of the marriage:
| Length of marriage | Advisory duration |
|---|---|
| Up to and including 15 years | 15% to 30% of the length of the marriage |
| More than 15, up to and including 20 years | 30% to 40% of the length of the marriage |
| More than 20 years | 35% to 50% of the length of the marriage |
Advisory means what it says. A twelve-year marriage produces a suggested range of roughly twenty-one months to a little over three and a half years, a range wide enough that it settles very little on its own. In an agreement you can choose a term inside it, outside it, or a fixed date unrelated to it.
The length of the marriage is generally measured from the date of the marriage to the date the action is commenced, not to the date you separated. Couples who have lived apart for years are sometimes surprised by that.
Agreeing to something other than the guideline
Most uncontested agreements we see depart from the formula, and there is nothing irregular about that. What the agreement has to do is:
- State the guideline amount that the formula produces.
- State that you both knew it.
- State that you are agreeing to something different, and why.
That is the entire mechanism. It exists so that a spouse cannot come back years later and say they had no idea what they were giving up, which also means it protects the person receiving less and the person paying, because it is what makes the departure hold.
Tax treatment
For agreements executed after December 31, 2018, maintenance is not deductible by the payor and not taxable to the recipient for federal purposes. That reversed decades of practice under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and it changes what a given dollar figure is actually worth to each person. Older agreements can retain the prior treatment.
We are not accountants and do not give tax advice. Where the numbers are large enough for the treatment to matter, talk to one before signing.
What ends it
By default, post-divorce maintenance ends on the death of either party or on the recipient’s remarriage. Beyond that, couples routinely write in their own triggers, a fixed end date, the payor’s retirement, cohabitation on a spouse-like basis. Those terms are enforceable when they are in the agreement and vague when they are not, which is most of the argument for drafting it carefully the first time.
Questions people ask
Is spousal maintenance the same as alimony?
Yes. "Alimony" is the older word and the one people still use; New York statutes call it maintenance. Maintenance paid while the case is pending is temporary maintenance, and maintenance set in the judgment is post-divorce maintenance. They are calculated under different provisions.
How is the guideline amount calculated?
Two formulas are run and the lower result is the guideline amount. Which pair of formulas applies depends on whether the person paying maintenance is also paying child support. The calculation applies to the payor’s income up to the statutory cap, which is $241,000 as of March 1, 2026.
Does income above the cap get ignored?
Not ignored, treated differently. The formula runs on income up to the cap. Above it, the court has discretion to award more after weighing the statutory factors, and can decline to. In an uncontested case the two of you can agree on how income above the cap is handled.
How long does maintenance last?
There is an advisory schedule tied to the length of the marriage, running from 15 to 30 percent of its length for shorter marriages up to 35 to 50 percent for marriages over twenty years. It is advisory, not binding, and in an uncontested case the two of you can agree on a different term.
Can we agree to no maintenance at all?
You can, and many couples do. The agreement has to state that you were aware of the guideline amount and are opting out of it, and give the reason. That requirement exists so nobody can later claim they never knew what the formula would have produced.
Is maintenance taxable?
Not for federal purposes in agreements executed after December 31, 2018. Under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act the payor no longer deducts it and the recipient no longer reports it as income. Older agreements can still follow the prior treatment. Ask an accountant about your own numbers.
Does maintenance end if my ex remarries?
Post-divorce maintenance ends on the death of either party or on the payee’s remarriage unless the agreement says otherwise. Couples often add their own terms, cohabitation, retirement, a fixed end date, and those are enforceable if they are written down.
Related
Sources
NY Courts — What’s New in Matrimonial Legislation, Court Rules and Forms ·NY Courts — Maintenance and Child Support Tools ·NY Domestic Relations Law § 236
The $241,000 payor income cap took effect March 1, 2026 and is verified against the court system’s own notice; it adjusts again on March 1, 2028. Verified August 23, 2026. This page describes how New York calculates maintenance. It is not advice about your own case, and it does not tell you what your agreement should say.