The rest of what we have written about Colorado. Every figure is quoted from Colorado’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.
Dividing property and money in a Colorado divorce
The money picture for a divorce in Colorado: how property gets divided, what Colorado calls spousal support and how it is decided, whether one spouse can be made to pay the other’s legal fees while the case is running, and — the part nobody publishes — whether Colorado’s own income tax follows the federal rule on alimony.
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Every claim is traced to Colorado’s own statute, court rule or revenue department, quoted where the wording carries the meaning. Where we could not verify something, the page says so instead of filling the space. Information, not legal advice — and tax questions in particular need a professional in your state. Corrections: thecusp.app/corrections.
Does Colorado follow the federal alimony rule?
Since 2019, federal law has treated alimony as not deductible by the payer and not taxable to the recipient, for any instrument executed after 31 December 2018. Most people assume every state followed. Most did. Not all.
Colorado income tax is calculated on the individual’s federal taxable income (not merely federal AGI), modified only by a specific, enumerated list of additions and subtractions set out in the Department of Revenue’s Individual Income Tax Guide. Alimony does not appear anywhere on that list of required modifications, so Colorado simply inherits whatever the federal taxable income figure already reflects — which, for instruments executed after Dec. 31, 2018, is the TCJA’s non-deductible/non-taxable treatment. This is pattern-consistent with rolling conformity even though Colorado does not use a single ‘IRC conformity date’ provision the way California does.
So the federal answer is your answer: post-2018 instruments, no deduction and no inclusion, on either return.
Source: Colorado Dept. of Revenue, ‘Colorado Individual Income Tax Guide’ (Parts 2-4, additions and subtractions to federal taxable income; no alimony-related addback), citing Colo. Rev. Stat. § 39-22-104 · source
Conformity: rolling (Colorado taxable income = federal taxable income as computed under current federal law, plus a fixed statutory list of additions/subtractions that does not include alimony)
Nationally: 36 states follow the federal rule, 9 have no income tax, 4 are decoupled, and 1 — Maine — we could not establish. The full fifty-state table and what each decoupled state does differently.
How property is divided
Colorado is an equitable distribution state. That means the court divides marital property fairly, which is not a synonym for equally. What counts as marital rather than separate property is frequently the whole argument.
the court…shall set apart to each spouse his or her property and shall divide the marital property, without regard to marital misconduct, in such proportions as the court deems just after considering all relevant factors
Source: Colo. Rev. Stat. § 14-10-113(1)
Maintenance
Colorado calls it maintenance. Using the state’s own word matters when you are searching for forms or reading a statute.
guideline formula
A formula makes the outcome far more predictable than in a factors-only state — run it before you negotiate, not after.
it is appropriate to create a statutory framework for the determination of maintenance awards, including advisory guidelines for the amount and term of maintenance in certain cases
Source: Colo. Rev. Stat. § 14-10-114
Child support
Colorado uses the income shares model — both parents’ incomes go into the calculation, and the result is apportioned between you.
Whichever model applies, this is the most predictable number in your case — there is a formula and a presumption that its output is correct. Deviating from it takes written findings. Run it early; it is free, and it anchors everything else.
Guideline: Colo. Rev. Stat. § 14-10-115
How Colorado calculates child support, in detail
Who pays for the lawyers
Fee-shifting provision: Colo. Rev. Stat. § 14-10-119
The court from time to time, after considering the financial resources of both parties, may order a party to pay a reasonable amount for the cost to the other party of maintaining or defending any proceeding… including sums for legal services rendered and costs incurred prior to the commencement of the proceeding or after entry of judgment
A fee award that only arrives at final judgment is close to worthless to someone who could not afford a lawyer during the case. By then it is over. An interim award is what stops a wealthier spouse winning by attrition.
If you are the lower earner, this is the single most actionable thing on this page. Ask at the first meeting, in these words: “Can we move for an interim award of attorney fees now?” Do not let “we will deal with fees at the end” pass unexamined.
Separately, if custody is contested you may be ordered to pay for a guardian ad litem or a custody evaluator, and the court decides how to split that. What that costs in Colorado, and who bears it.
The thing worth knowing about Colorado
Colorado is one of only a handful of states with a statutory advisory guideline FORMULA for spousal maintenance: for combined incomes up to $10,000/month, the guideline amount is 40% of the parties’ combined monthly adjusted gross income minus the lower earner’s monthly adjusted gross income, per Colo. Rev. Stat. § 14-10-114(3)(b).