Alimony in Arizona

Does Arizona have an alimony formula?

Yes — through guidelines the statute orders the courts to write.

There is no percentage-of-income formula in the Arizona statute. The statute orders the Supreme Court to write guidelines and then makes the guideline result the award unless the court writes down that it is inappropriate or unjust: A.R.S. s. 25-319(B), quoted above. The Guidelines themselves describe what they produce, verbatim: 'The Guidelines lead to an amount range from which the court determines the appropriate award. Yet if the court finds the amount resulting from applying the amount range is inappropriate or unjust, the court may deviate based on the factors in Section VI of the Guidelines. The Guidelines also establish duration ranges for the spousal maintenance award, but the statute does not authorize a deviation from the duration ranges.' (Guidelines, Section I.A, Executive Summary.) The amount range is an expenditure calculation, not a share of income. Guidelines, Section I.D ('Using the Spousal Maintenance Calculator'), Step 5, verbatim: 'Step 5: Calculate the Amount Range. The amount range is the amount remaining after subtracting the receiving spouse's share of expenditures from the combined expenditures. After considering the statutory factors and facts in a particular case, the court can award an amount within the amount range. If the court determines the amount range is unjust, the court can deviate from the amount range, including an award of zero.' The inputs come from a state-published calculator: 'The Spousal Maintenance Calculator uses data from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey. The method applied to the data is a per capita method adopted by the United States Department of Agriculture Survey of Expenditures on Children by Families, adjusted for inflation.' (Guidelines, Section I.A.) Source: https://www.azcourts.gov/Portals/0/22/2023-119_1.pdf

Use the state’s own words

Arizona calls it 'Spousal maintenance', or simply 'maintenance'. A.R.S. 25-319 is captioned 'Maintenance; guidelines; computation factors' and its operative words are 'a maintenance order' and 'spousal maintenance'; A.R.S. 25-327 is captioned 'Modification and termination of provisions for maintenance, support and property disposition'. The Arizona Supreme Court's guidelines are titled the Arizona Spousal Maintenance Guidelines and use 'spousal maintenance' throughout. The word 'alimony' does not appear in either section as read on 2026-08-23.. Using the state’s own term matters when you are searching for forms or reading an order — the words are not interchangeable across state lines, and some of them mean different things in different places.

What the law actually says

The power the court has

A.R.S. s. 25-319 (maintenance; guidelines; computation factors); A.R.S. s. 25-327 (modification and termination). The guidelines the statute commands are the Arizona Spousal Maintenance Guidelines, adopted by Arizona Supreme Court Administrative Order No. 2023-119 effective July 10, 2023, replacing Administrative Order No. 2022-119, under Chapter 301, Laws 2022 (2nd Reg. Sess.), effective September 24, 2022.A.R.S. s. 25-319(A), verbatim: 'In a proceeding for dissolution of marriage or legal separation, or a proceeding for maintenance following dissolution of the marriage by a court that lacked personal jurisdiction over the absent spouse, the court may grant a maintenance order for either spouse for any of the following reasons if it finds that the spouse seeking maintenance: 1. Lacks sufficient property, including property apportioned to the spouse, to provide for that spouse's reasonable needs. 2. Lacks earning ability in the labor market that is adequate to be self-sufficient. 3. Is the parent of a child whose age or condition is such that the parent should not be required to seek employment outside the home. 4. Has made a significant financial or other contribution to the education, training, vocational skills, career or earning ability of the other spouse or has significantly reduced that spouse's income or career opportunities for the benefit of the other spouse. 5. Had a marriage of long duration and is of an age that may preclude the possibility of gaining employment adequate to be self-sufficient.' The first three sentences of s. 25-319(B), verbatim: 'The supreme court shall establish guidelines for determining and awarding spousal maintenance. The court may award spousal maintenance pursuant to the guidelines only for a period of time and in an amount necessary to enable the receiving spouse to become self-sufficient. The amount of spousal maintenance resulting from the application of the guidelines shall be the amount of spousal maintenance ordered by the court, unless the court finds in writing that applying the guidelines would be inappropriate or unjust.' Source: https://www.azleg.gov/ars/25/00319.htm

What the judge has to weigh

A.R.S. s. 25-319 (maintenance; guidelines; computation factors); A.R.S. s. 25-327 (modification and termination). The guidelines the statute commands are the Arizona Spousal Maintenance Guidelines, adopted by Arizona Supreme Court Administrative Order No. 2023-119 effective July 10, 2023, replacing Administrative Order No. 2022-119, under Chapter 301, Laws 2022 (2nd Reg. Sess.), effective September 24, 2022. — the factorsA.R.S. s. 25-319(B), the thirteen computation factors, verbatim, together with the sentence that introduces them: 'The supreme court shall base the guidelines and criteria for deviation from the guidelines on the following relevant factors listed in paragraphs 1 through 13 of this subsection and considered together and weighed in conjunction with each other: 1. The standard of living established during the marriage. 2. The duration of the marriage. 3. The age, employment history, earning ability and physical and emotional condition of the spouse seeking maintenance. 4. The ability of the spouse from whom maintenance is sought to meet that spouse's needs while meeting those of the spouse seeking maintenance. 5. The comparative financial resources of the spouses, including their comparative earning abilities in the labor market. 6. The contribution of the spouse seeking maintenance to the earning ability of the other spouse. 7. The extent to which the spouse seeking maintenance has reduced that spouse's income or career opportunities for the benefit of the other spouse. 8. The ability of both parties after the dissolution to contribute to the future educational costs of their mutual children. 9. The financial resources of the party seeking maintenance, including marital property apportioned to that spouse, and that spouse's ability to meet that spouse's own needs independently. 10. The time necessary to acquire sufficient education or training to enable the party seeking maintenance to find appropriate employment and whether such education or training is readily available. 11. Excessive or abnormal expenditures, destruction, concealment or fraudulent disposition of community, joint tenancy and other property held in common. 12. The cost for the spouse who is seeking maintenance to obtain health insurance and the reduction in the cost of health insurance for the spouse from whom maintenance is sought if the spouse from whom maintenance is sought is able to convert family health insurance to employee health insurance after the marriage is dissolved. 13. All actual damages and judgments from conduct that resulted in criminal conviction of either spouse in which the other spouse or a child was the victim.' Note the grammar of the lead-in: the thirteen factors are addressed in terms to the Supreme Court as the basis for the guidelines and for the criteria for deviating from them, not directly to the trial judge as a checklist. Source: https://www.azleg.gov/ars/25/00319.htm

How long it lasts

Duration

Duration is set by the Guidelines, not by the statute. Guidelines, Section V.B.2.a, verbatim: 'a. Standard Duration Ranges: i. For marriages less than 24 months, a duration range of 3 months up to 12 months of spousal maintenance; ii. For marriages of 24 months but less than 60 months, a duration range of 6 months up to 36 months of spousal maintenance; iii. For marriages of 60 months but less than 120 months, a duration range of 6 months up to 48 months of spousal maintenance; iv. For marriages of 120 months but less than 192 months, a duration range of 12 months up to 60 months; and v. For marriages of 192 months or more, a duration range of 12 months up to 96 months, subject to the Rule of 65.' Marriage length is defined in Guidelines Section V.B.1, verbatim: 'For spousal maintenance purposes, the marriage length is the number of months from the date of marriage to the date of service of process of the dissolution or legal separation petition. The time before the parties were legally married is specifically omitted from this calculation. Marriage length includes periods of physical separation without the initiation of dissolution or legal separation proceedings.' The escape hatch, Guidelines Section V.B.2.b, verbatim: 'When the age of the party seeking spousal maintenance combined with the marriage length exceeds 65 (age + marriage length as of the date of service of process of the dissolution or legal separation petition), the duration range is within the court's discretion. This formula is known as the Rule of 65. For the Rule of 65 to apply, three things must be true: (1) the party seeking the award is at least 42 years old, (2) the marriage length, as defined above, is at least 16 years (192 or more months)'. The Guidelines state that the statute does not authorize deviation from the duration ranges. Source: https://www.azcourts.gov/Portals/0/22/2023-119_1.pdf

Does behavior matter?

Marital misconduct

Excluded by statute, in one sentence that is its own subsection. A.R.S. s. 25-319(C), verbatim and in full: 'A maintenance order shall be made without regard to marital misconduct.' Two of the thirteen computation factors nevertheless reach conduct with a money consequence: s. 25-319(B)(11), 'Excessive or abnormal expenditures, destruction, concealment or fraudulent disposition of community, joint tenancy and other property held in common' — which the Guidelines gloss, verbatim, as 'This factor is sometimes referred to as marital waste' (Guidelines, Section III.4) — and s. 25-319(B)(13), 'All actual damages and judgments from conduct that resulted in criminal conviction of either spouse in which the other spouse or a child was the victim.' Source: https://www.azleg.gov/ars/25/00319.htm and https://www.azcourts.gov/Portals/0/22/2023-119_1.pdf

When it ends, and when it can change

What brings it to an end

A.R.S. s. 25-327(B), verbatim and in full: 'Unless otherwise agreed in writing or expressly provided in the decree, the obligation to pay future maintenance is terminated on the death of either party or the remarriage of the party receiving maintenance.' Termination is automatic on those two events and is not conditioned on a motion. There is no statutory cohabitation trigger and no statutory retirement trigger in Chapter 3 of Title 25; retirement can reach maintenance only through the ordinary modification standard in s. 25-327(A). Source: https://www.azleg.gov/ars/25/00327.htm

Changing it later

A.R.S. s. 25-327(A), first sentence, verbatim: 'Except as otherwise provided in section 25-317, subsections F and G, the provisions of any decree respecting maintenance or support may be modified or terminated only on a showing of changed circumstances that are substantial and continuing except as to any amount that may have accrued as an arrearage before the date of notice of the motion or order to show cause to modify or terminate.' Effective date of a modification, verbatim: 'Modifications and terminations are effective on the first day of the month following notice of the petition for modification or termination unless the court, for good cause shown, orders the change to become effective at a different date but not earlier than the date of filing the petition for modification or termination.' The parties can contract out of modification, but only jointly: A.R.S. s. 25-319(D), verbatim, 'If both parties agree, the maintenance order and a decree of dissolution of marriage or of legal separation may state that its maintenance terms shall not be modified.' Absent that, s. 25-319(E) keeps the court in: 'Except as provided in subsection D of this section or section 25-317, subsection G, the court shall maintain continuing jurisdiction over the issue of maintenance for the period of time maintenance is awarded.' The Guidelines add a rule about what counts as changed circumstances where they apply, verbatim: 'When deciding a modification petition subject to the Guidelines, a party can establish a substantial and continuing change of circumstances by showing that applying the Guidelines would change an existing order.' (Guidelines, Section I.C.2.a.) For orders originating in petitions filed before September 24, 2022, the Guidelines say the opposite, verbatim: 'The Guidelines do not apply and cannot form the basis for finding changed circumstances under A.R.S. s. 25-327. If a party otherwise establishes changed circumstances, the court may, but need not, consult the Guidelines to determine the amount — but not the duration — of an award.' (Guidelines, Section I.C.2.b.) Sources: https://www.azleg.gov/ars/25/00327.htm and https://www.azcourts.gov/Portals/0/22/2023-119_1.pdf

Worth knowing about Arizona

Four things. First, Arizona splits eligibility from entitlement, and the Guidelines say so in terms: 'Eligibility means that a party meets at least one of the factors under A.R.S. s. 25-319(A). A requesting spouse cannot use a spousal maintenance calculator and the corresponding spousal maintenance range to prove eligibility under A.R.S. s. 25-319(A). … Entitlement means that after calculating the spousal maintenance amount under the Guidelines, and if the court determines that application of the Guidelines is just and appropriate, the court must award the party spousal maintenance.' (Guidelines, Section I.D.) A spouse can be eligible and still get nothing. Second, the asymmetry between amount and duration: the Guidelines state that the court may deviate from the amount range but that 'the statute does not authorize a deviation from the duration ranges.' Third, the guidelines run off federal consumer-expenditure data through a calculator the Supreme Court publishes, not off a share of either spouse's income; a page that describes Arizona as having a percentage formula is describing something that does not exist. Fourth, the Guidelines are not retroactive: Administrative Order 2023-119 orders, verbatim, '1. For dissolution and legal separation petitions with an original filing date on or after September 24, 2022, the Guidelines apply unless the parties stipulate otherwise. 2. For dissolution and legal separation petitions with an original filing date before September 24, 2022, the Guidelines do not apply unless the parties stipulate otherwise.' Two bodies of Arizona spousal maintenance law are therefore running at the same time, divided by the filing date of the original petition.

The tax rule changed, and most guides still describe the old one

For a divorce or separation instrument executed after 31 December 2018, alimony is not deductible by the person paying it and not taxable to the person receiving it. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act repealed the provisions that made it otherwise. For an instrument executed on or before that date the old treatment continues — deductible to the payer, taxable to the recipient — unless it is later modified and the modification expressly adopts the new rule.

This is not a detail. Under the old rule a higher-rate payer could transfer income to a lower-rate recipient and the two of them shared the saving. That saving no longer exists, which changes what a given number is worth to each side. New Hampshire wrote the point into its own statute: its 23 per cent figure assumes non-deductibility, and reverts to 30 per cent if the federal treatment is ever restored.

Alongside the federal rule, Arizona’s own income tax follows the federal treatment. That means the federal answer above is the whole answer here — no state adjustment for alimony either way. Four states do not — Arkansas, California, New Jersey and New York — so this is worth knowing rather than assuming. The fifty-state table.
Source: Arizona Department of Revenue, ‘Conformity to IRC’ (azdor.gov/about/legal-research/conformity-irc), describing annual reconformity of A.R.S. § 43-105 and confirming the starting point for the Arizona return is federal adjusted gross income the state source

Authority: Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Pub. L. 115-97, section 11051, repealing Internal Revenue Code sections 71 and 215; see also IRS Publication 504.

Authority: A.R.S. s. 25-319 (maintenance; guidelines; computation factors); A.R.S. s. 25-327 (modification and termination). The guidelines the statute commands are the Arizona Spousal Maintenance Guidelines, adopted by Arizona Supreme Court Administrative Order No. 2023-119 effective July 10, 2023, replacing Administrative Order No. 2022-119, under Chapter 301, Laws 2022 (2nd Reg. Sess.), effective September 24, 2022. — read it on Arizona’s own site. Checked 23 Aug 2026.

The other number that decides your budget

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And the question underneath it

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Alimony in Arizona.