What Is Spousal Maintenance?
After a party files for divorce, the court may award spousal maintenance in an amount and for a duration necessary to help the receiving spouse become financially self-sufficient, based on statutory factors and the Arizona Spousal Maintenance Guidelines. Spousal maintenance is available only in divorce or legal separation cases. Parties who were never married cannot obtain it in Arizona. Under Arizona law, gender is not a factor in determining whether a party is entitled to receive or required to pay spousal maintenance.
The governing statute is A.R.S. Section 25-319, supplemented by the Arizona Spousal Maintenance Guidelines. Our family law and spousal maintenance attorneys in Phoenix and Tempe represent clients through every aspect of a spousal maintenance case, whether they’re seeking an award or defending against one.
Before 2022, Arizona had no approved formula for spousal maintenance. As of September 24, 2022, the Legislature amended the statute to include guidelines that provide a presumed range for both the amount and duration of awards when a party is found eligible and entitled. The Arizona Spousal Maintenance Guidelines include a calculator similar to the Child Support Guidelines. It determines the amount range based primarily on the parties’ incomes, family size, and standardized expenses, and the duration range based on the length of the marriage. The Guidelines apply to all divorce petitions filed after September 24, 2022. Cases filed before that date are governed by the prior version of A.R.S. Section 25-319 unless both parties agree to apply the new guidelines.
Will I Have to Pay Spousal Maintenance? Will I Receive It?
Whether a party will pay or receive spousal maintenance are opposite sides of the same question. Many divorcing spouses resolve these disputes through settlement. As your attorneys, we take all reasonable measures to help you reach a fair resolution without going to trial. When settlement isn’t possible, the case proceeds to Maricopa County Superior Court, where the assigned judge decides. Our attorneys are experienced in trying spousal maintenance cases and presenting a strong case on your behalf.
The answer to whether you’re entitled to receive spousal maintenance, and if so, how much and for how long, depends on the facts of your case. It turns on the Arizona Spousal Maintenance Guidelines, A.R.S. Section 25-319, and case law. The key variables include how long you were married, each party’s income, income potential if one spouse is unemployed or underemployed, the extent of assets and property interests, and family size.
The Guidelines provide a more objective framework for determining the presumed amount and duration of an award. But significant variables remain. Even with the calculator producing a presumed range, courts retain discretion on where within that range to set the award and can deviate on amount if the result would be unjust. Income attribution disputes, deviation arguments, and the statutory factors under A.R.S. Section 25-319(B) are all areas where attorney depth can affect the outcome.
Some cases are straightforward; others fall in a gray area: short marriages, spouses with similar incomes or earning capacity, or cases where the spouse requesting maintenance has other resources available. We can give you an honest, objective assessment of what to expect based on the facts of your situation.
Eligibility Versus Entitlement to Spousal Maintenance
Arizona’s spousal maintenance analysis involves two distinct steps: eligibility and entitlement. The eligibility standard under A.R.S. Section 25-319(A) is broad. In many cases, both parties could technically qualify. But meeting eligibility doesn’t guarantee an award. If the eligible party is otherwise financially self-sufficient, entitlement may not follow. The amount and duration of any award are frequently the most contested issues in a divorce.
Eligibility Requirements
A party seeking spousal maintenance must meet at least one of the following criteria under A.R.S. §25-319(A):
- Whether a party is or can be self-sufficient through employment income and income from other sources, such as investment returns.
- Whether a party has property interests sufficient to meet their reasonable needs.
- Whether a party is disabled and unable to work.
- Whether a party has young children and should be permitted to stay home or work part-time.
- Whether one party made significant contributions to the other spouse’s education, career opportunities, or earning ability, or significantly reduced his or her own income or career opportunities for the other spouse’s benefit.
- Whether the marriage was long and the party seeking support is of an age that may preclude adequate employment for self-sufficiency.
(The above factors have been abbreviated for clarity. See the full statute, A.R.S. Section 25-319, for the actual statutory language.)
Passing the eligibility threshold is the first hurdle. Once cleared, the court applies the Arizona Spousal Maintenance Guidelines and its own discretion to determine whether to award maintenance and, if so, the amount and duration.
Effect of Premarital or Post-Marital Agreements on Spousal Maintenance
Premarital agreements that preclude or limit a spousal maintenance award are generally enforceable when the statutory requirements are satisfied. When a valid and enforceable premarital agreement governs, the Arizona Spousal Maintenance Guidelines don’t apply. The agreement controls whether a party is eligible and, if specified, the amount and duration of any award.
Post-marital agreements are subject to a different enforceability analysis. Whether such an agreement is enforceable depends on a number of factors, including whether it was fair at the time of execution, whether both parties understood their legal rights, and various other considerations.
When either type of agreement is found enforceable, it controls whether a party is entitled to spousal maintenance and, if the agreement specifies, the amount and duration. In that case, a party may not be “eligible” at all, or may have only the specific entitlement the agreement establishes.
Arizona Spousal Maintenance Guidelines: Amount & Duration
Once a spouse is found eligible, the court determines entitlement, amount, and duration by applying the Arizona Spousal Maintenance Guidelines (for cases filed after September 24, 2022) and using the Spousal Maintenance Calculator. The calculator produces a presumed range for both the monthly amount and the overall duration. The court then selects an amount and duration within those ranges, subject to certain exceptions described below.
We’ve outlined the Guidelines below in a more readable format. Because they are relatively new, some interpretive questions remain unresolved, and we expect to see refinements in the coming years.
We recommend that anyone facing a potential spousal maintenance obligation or award read the Arizona Spousal Maintenance Guidelines. Doing so can help you understand why your attorney is asking specific questions, requesting particular documents, and focusing on the factors that drive the analysis.
Purposes
The Guidelines are designed to help the requesting spouse become financially self-sufficient, to promote consistency in awards for spouses in similar circumstances, and to encourage settlement by providing a predictable presumed range.
Effective Date
The Guidelines apply to petitions for divorce or legal separation filed after September 24, 2022. They don’t apply to earlier cases unless the parties agree, and they don’t apply to modification proceedings unless the original petition was filed after that date.
Application
The Spousal Maintenance Calculator works through the following steps:
- Determine Family Size
- Determine the parties’ combined Spousal Maintenance Income
- Determine the range of expenditures (the calculator does this)
- Calculate the amount range for spousal maintenance (the calculator does this)
- Calculate the duration range (the calculator does this)
- Determine the final award through settlement or, if no settlement is reached, by the court
Determining Family Size
Family size is a required input in the Spousal Maintenance Calculator because the underlying Consumer Expenditure Survey data is based on household size. For purposes of the Guidelines, family size is capped at five and includes only those the parties have a legal obligation to support. That includes the children of the divorcing spouses and children for whom a parent has an additional legal support obligation, meaning they are paying child support or the child lives with them at least part-time. Including a child from a prior relationship in family size doesn’t mean the paying spouse is directly supporting that child. It reflects a pro-rata reasonable-needs analysis used to determine what assistance is needed to reach self-sufficiency.
Determining Spousal Maintenance Income
Not all income is treated the same under the Arizona Spousal Maintenance Guidelines. Gross income and adjusted gross income for tax purposes don’t carry the same meaning as “Spousal Maintenance Income” or what the Guidelines call “Actual Income.” These distinctions significantly affect how the calculator runs and what a final award looks like.
Actual Income
Actual Income includes income from any source before deductions and tax withholdings. This covers investment gains, dividends, rent, Social Security, trust funds, workers’ compensation, unemployment, insurance benefits, military benefits, interest, and recurring gifts. It may also include the reversal of certain tax write-offs that don’t constitute actual expenses, such as depreciation on rental homes, and income available from retirement assets if a party has reached full retirement age, even if they haven’t begun drawing those benefits.
For fluctuating income, courts generally use an average. When income varies significantly across years, the court has discretion to consider more than one year. Non-recurring income, such as a one-time signing bonus, may be excluded at the court’s discretion. For business owners, Actual Income means total receipts minus ordinary and necessary expenses required to produce that income. Personal write-offs not required to generate income are generally not deducted, even if they’re allowable for tax purposes. Certain employment benefits that reduce an employee’s personal expenses, including vested and partially vested stock options, restricted stock units, and deferred compensation, may also count as Actual Income.
Attributed Income
When a spouse is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed, the court has discretion to attribute a reasonable income amount based on employment history, education, and other relevant factors. Staying unemployed during divorce proceedings generally doesn’t produce a more favorable award. Courts have consistently held that parties have an obligation to make reasonable efforts to find suitable employment, and a court that finds intentional avoidance may minimize spousal maintenance based on what that person could be earning.
Property and Assets as Income
Income from income-producing property is included in a party’s Actual Income for spousal maintenance purposes, as is income-producing potential. The Guidelines permit a court to attribute a four-percent annual rate of return on applicable property holdings when equitable to do so. How the first portion of those holdings is treated, specifically the scope of the $100,000 exemption per item versus in the aggregate, remains subject to interpretation and may produce future disputes until higher courts or revised Guidelines provide clearer direction.
For this analysis, “property or asset” is broadly defined to include all assets capable of generating income or reducing living expenses in their current or converted form. A mortgage-free home where a party resides is one example of an asset that reduces living expenses.
Excessive abnormal expenditures or dissipation of marital property, commonly called marital waste, can be addressed several ways: through a reimbursement claim, a deviation to increase the spousal maintenance award, or an unequal division of community property to offset the loss.
Mortgage Principal & the Spousal Maintenance Calculator
Under the original Arizona Spousal Maintenance Guidelines effective July 10, 2023, the principal portion of mortgage payments on residences used by the family was included as a separate line item in the Spousal Maintenance Calculator. This applied to all homes used as family residences, including second mortgages on those properties, but not mortgages on rental or investment properties.
Important Update: September 1, 2025 Amendment. For maintenance orders entered on or after September 1, 2025, mortgage principal payments are no longer included in the calculator. This is a significant change from the 2023 guidelines. Orders governed by the post-September 2025 version of the calculator won’t reflect mortgage principal as a line item, which may result in different award calculations for spouses carrying a mortgage on the marital residence. Parties negotiating a consent decree retain the ability to address housing costs in their agreement. Cases filed before September 24, 2022 continue to be governed by the prior version of the statute, where the guidelines don’t apply unless both parties agree.
Other Expenses. Because the Guidelines use standardized expenses based on the parties’ incomes and family size, a party’s individual actual expenses have less direct relevance for most purposes. However, actual expenses as set out in a party’s Affidavit of Financial Information may still matter in determining where the court sets the award within the calculator’s range. Expenses that qualify as “extraordinary” may support a deviation in the amount, as discussed below.
Determining the Duration of the Award
Arizona’s statutory policy is that spousal maintenance should be awarded only for the time necessary to enable the receiving spouse to become self-sufficient.
Standard Duration Ranges
The calculator produces a presumed duration range tied directly to the length of the marriage:
Less than 24 months: 3–12 months.
24–60 months: 6–36 months.
60–120 months: 6–48 months.
120–192 months: 12–60 months.
192 or more months: 12–144 months, or 50% of the length of the marriage, whichever is greater (subject to the Rule of 65 addressed below).
Courts may deviate from the presumed amount range if the result would be inappropriate or unjust, but they cannot deviate from the presumed duration range unless the award amount is zero or one of the specific exceptions below applies.
The Rule of 65
The Guidelines provide an exception to the standard duration range when a party qualifies under the Rule of 65. The rule applies when: (1) the party seeking the award is at least 42 years old; (2) the marriage lasted at least 192 months; and (3) the party’s age combined with the marriage length in months equals or exceeds 65. When the Rule of 65 is met, the duration is within the court’s discretion. Meeting the Rule of 65 doesn’t automatically extend the award. It gives the court broader discretion for a party who may never fully achieve self-sufficiency.
Disability of the Receiving Spouse
A receiving spouse’s disability is another exception to the standard duration range. The analysis depends on whether the disability is “indefinite” or “permanent.” With an indefinite disability, the spouse seeking to extend the award beyond the ordered duration bears the burden of proof in any modification proceeding. With a permanent disability, the burden shifts to the paying spouse to establish grounds for modification or termination. A permanent disability may result in an award with no set termination date. Arizona courts no longer use the term “lifetime” spousal maintenance. An indefinite award means no set end date, but the award remains subject to modification.
Extraordinary Circumstances
A spouse who can show by clear and convincing evidence that extraordinary circumstances create a barrier to achieving self-sufficiency may qualify for a duration outside the standard range. Examples include a parent of a very young child where the presumed duration would be too short, a catastrophic illness or event, or extraordinary ongoing medical expenses substantially beyond what an average person incurs.
Starting Date of the Award
Under the Guidelines, a spousal maintenance award begins on the first day of the month following entry of the final decree of dissolution or legal separation. The parties can generally stipulate to a different starting date or payment schedule.
Deviations in Contested Spousal Maintenance Cases
Under the amended statute, a court may deviate only from the amount of a spousal maintenance award, not the duration range. A deviation may go upward or downward. The party seeking a deviation bears the burden of proving the amount within the range is inappropriate or unjust in their particular circumstances. The court evaluates that question using the factors set forth in A.R.S. Section 25-319(B).
Convincing a court to go outside the presumed range isn’t easy. The range is built on national averages, and you’ll generally need to establish that your circumstances are genuinely exceptional before a court will find the guideline result unjust or inappropriate.
The Guidelines identify certain adjustments that aren’t classified as “deviations” and don’t require an unjust-or-inappropriate finding: (1) a step-down award that adjusts in amount over time while staying within the amount range; (2) a written or on-the-record agreement between the parties to go outside the ranges, provided each party entered the agreement free of duress, with awareness of the guidelines; and (3) the low-income exception, under which the court may deny spousal maintenance if the parties’ combined incomes are below $44,000.
Temporary Spousal Maintenance Orders
Temporary orders allow a party to a divorce or legal separation proceeding to request interim relief while the case proceeds. The purpose of temporary spousal maintenance is to preserve the financial status quo during that period. Courts are still required to apply the Guidelines to temporary amounts but must also account for each party’s payments toward community liabilities. The temporary award should be adjusted accordingly.
The Guidelines recognize that some spouses may not have worked in years. For temporary orders, income generally won’t be attributed to a spouse requesting maintenance who hasn’t been employed full-time by a bona fide employer for at least 24 months immediately before the petition was filed. If that spouse does have actual employment income when the temporary order is entered, the court uses that actual income rather than attributing a different amount. Temporary hearings are typically short, usually around one hour. Temporary spousal maintenance awards are not counted toward the final award duration unless the court orders otherwise.
Modification & Termination of Spousal Maintenance
Spousal maintenance terminates automatically on the death of either party or the remarriage of the receiving spouse. No court action is required for either event.
Outside of those automatic triggers, a party can seek to modify or terminate an existing award by showing a substantial and continuing change of circumstances, assuming the parties didn’t agree to make the award non-modifiable. If a consent decree designates the award as non-modifiable, the court has no authority to revisit it.
Common examples of changed circumstances include the paying spouse’s retirement at full retirement age (actual retirement is required, not anticipated) and a disability by either party that materially affects their ability to work.
What Duration Range Applies to Modification?
Absent a specific exception, a court can only modify duration within the original duration range. Courts can’t extend duration beyond that range unless a disability or extraordinary circumstances arose after the original award.
Do the Guidelines Apply to Modification Proceedings?
Whether the Guidelines apply to a modification proceeding depends on when the original petition was filed. If it was filed after September 24, 2022, the Guidelines apply. For cases filed before that date, the Guidelines don’t apply unless the parties agree otherwise.
The bottom line on modification: no change can be made without the requesting party demonstrating a substantial and continuing change of circumstances. The word “continuing” carries as much weight as “substantial.” Temporary setbacks don’t meet the standard. A job loss, for example, may be temporary unless the party can show they can’t find comparable employment.
Spousal Maintenance Practice Tips
Skilled representation can make a real difference in spousal maintenance cases. How income is characterized, whether a deviation argument holds up, and how the court exercises its discretion within the guidelines ranges all depend on the quality of the advocacy. Our attorneys present your case on amount and duration, whether you’re seeking an award or defending against one.
William D. Bishop, Managing Partner of BDB Law, authored a detailed set of Spousal Maintenance Practice Tips for both attorneys and self-represented parties, available on our website.
A spousal maintenance award can affect your finances for years. For Phoenix-area residents evaluating their options, we offer in-person, video, and telephone consultations. Call us at (602) 878-3133 or visit one of our two Valley locations to speak with a divorce attorney about your case.
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