Alimony in Idaho.
Whether the state sets a formula or leaves it to the judge, what the court has to weigh, how long it runs, and what brings it to an end.
See a different stateIdaho
No formula, cap or presumptive amount. Idaho's control is a two-part gateway rather than a number: the claimant must both lack sufficient property for reasonable needs AND be unable to support himself or herself through employment before any award is possible. The amount is then 'such amounts and for such periods of time that the court deems just'. Idaho's child support guidelines are adopted by the Idaho Supreme Court as a rule of court, Idaho Rule of Family Law Procedure 120; no counterpart rule exists for maintenance, and none was found on the Idaho Supreme Court's own site.
Use the state’s own words
Idaho calls it maintenance. The catchline of Idaho Code s. 32-705 is simply 'MAINTENANCE'; s. 32-704 uses 'temporary maintenance' in subsection (1) and 'spousal support' in subsection (2), which deals with decrees of legal separation.. 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.
The short version4 points · tap one to jump to it
- What the law actually says
- How long it lasts — No. 'The duration of the marriage' is factor (c), and the order runs 'for such periods of time that the court deems just'.
- Does behavior matter? — Expressly permitted, in the shortest possible words.
- When it ends, and when it can change — Not addressed. Idaho Code Title 32, Chapter 7 contains no provision terminating maintenance on death, remarriage, cohabitation or retirement.
In this subject 4
What the law actually says
The short version4 points · tap one to jump to it
- What the law actually says
- How long it lasts — No. 'The duration of the marriage' is factor (c), and the order runs 'for such periods of time that the court deems just'.
- Does behavior matter? — Expressly permitted, in the shortest possible words.
- When it ends, and when it can change — Not addressed. Idaho Code Title 32, Chapter 7 contains no provision terminating maintenance on death, remarriage, cohabitation or retirement.
In this subject 4
The power the court has
What the judge has to weigh
How long it lasts
Duration
No. 'The duration of the marriage' is factor (c), and the order runs 'for such periods of time that the court deems just'. There is no bracket, presumption or maximum term anywhere in Chapter 7.
Does behavior matter?
Marital misconduct
Expressly permitted, in the shortest possible words. Idaho Code s. 32-705(2)(g): 'The fault of either party.' It is the last item on the list; the statute gives it no definition and assigns it no weight. Idaho retains fault grounds for divorce under Idaho Code s. 32-603, so the word carries its ordinary divorce-law meaning. It is a factor, not a bar: nothing in s. 32-705(1) conditions eligibility on freedom from fault.
When it ends, and when it can change
What brings it to an end
Not addressed. Idaho Code Title 32, Chapter 7 contains no provision terminating maintenance on death, remarriage, cohabitation or retirement. The chapter's full section list was read (32-701 through 32-720) and it contains no termination section at all; ss. 32-704, 32-705 and 32-709 were read in full and are silent on every one of the four events.
Changing it later
Idaho Code s. 32-709(1): 'The provisions of any decree respecting maintenance or support may be modified only as to installments accruing subsequent to the motion for modification and only upon a showing of a substantial and material change of circumstances.' The section does not address whether the parties may agree that maintenance is non-modifiable.
Worth knowing about Idaho
Idaho Code s. 32-704(1) makes the showing required for TEMPORARY maintenance the same showing required for a final award — 'upon showing made in conformity with section 32-705' — so the s. 32-705 gateway, including the fault factor, applies while the case is pending. That is the mirror image of the Connecticut rule, where the grounds for the divorce are expressly read out of the pendente lite calculation. Idaho Code s. 32-704(3) then carries the same factors into fee awards: the court may order a party to pay the other's fees 'after considering the financial resources of both parties and the factors set forth in section 32-705, Idaho Code'.
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, Idaho’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. Worth one more line, because it decides what happens if the federal rule ever changes: Idaho does not adopt federal tax changes automatically. It uses the Internal Revenue Code as amended to 1 January 2026, and later federal changes do not apply until the legislature adopts them. Idaho’s conformity act applies retroactively, so the same date governs the return you are filing now. The fifty-state table.
Source: Idaho Code § 63-3004 (Internal revenue code) the state source
The other number that decides your budget
How Idaho calculates child support, and the overnight count that moves it more than income does.
And the question underneath it
What Idaho presumes about custody, and what the judge has to weigh.
The rest of what we have written about Idaho. Every figure is quoted from Idaho’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.