Alimony in Maryland.
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 stateMaryland
No formula, cap or presumptive amount, for any of the three kinds of Maryland award. Maryland has statutory child support guidelines with a rebuttable presumption (Md. Code, Fam. Law s. 12-202) and nothing of the sort for alimony. The Maryland Judiciary publishes no statewide alimony guideline. Two formulas circulate widely in Maryland practice — the Kaufman formula and the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers formula — and neither is a statute, a Maryland Rule, or a county local rule; neither has any legal force. Section 11-102 gives alimony pendente lite no formula either, and states no criteria for it at all.
Use the state’s own words
Maryland calls it alimony. The Family Law Article names two of the three kinds a Maryland reader will hear about: 'alimony pendente lite' (Md. Code, Fam. Law s. 11-102) and alimony 'for an indefinite period' (s. 11-106(c)). The third, universally called rehabilitative alimony, is not named in the statute at all — see unusual.. 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
What the judge has to weigh
How long it lasts
Duration
No bracket keyed to the length of the marriage; 'the duration of the marriage' is factor (4). Maryland instead makes the fixed-term award the default and legislates the two conditions on which an open-ended award may be made. Md. Code, Fam. Law s. 11-106(c): 'The court may award alimony for an indefinite period, if the court finds that: (1) due to age, illness, infirmity, or disability, the party seeking alimony cannot reasonably be expected to make substantial progress toward becoming self-supporting; or (2) even after the party seeking alimony will have made as much progress toward becoming self-supporting as can reasonably be expected, the respective standards of living of the parties will be unconscionably disparate.' A fixed-term award ends hard: s. 11-106(a)(3), 'At the conclusion of the period of the award of alimony, no further alimony shall accrue.' The safety valve is an extension, and it must be asked for before the term runs out: s. 11-107(a), 'Subject to s. 8-103 of this article, the court may extend the period for which alimony is awarded, if: (1) circumstances arise during the period that would lead to a harsh and inequitable result without an extension; and (2) the recipient petitions for an extension during the period.'
Does behavior matter?
Marital misconduct
Expressly permitted, and expressly not a bar. Md. Code, Fam. Law s. 11-103, in its entirety: 'The existence of a ground for divorce against the party seeking alimony is not an automatic bar to the court awarding alimony to that party.' Misconduct instead enters through the factor list, s. 11-106(b)(6): 'the circumstances that contributed to the estrangement of the parties'. Maryland thus does the exact opposite of Louisiana: fault is a consideration, never a disqualification. Title 11 does contain one hard bar, and it has nothing to do with fault: s. 11-101(d) forbids an alimony award on a bill of complaint to the spouse of a resident of a 'related institution' where the petitioner is relying on that institutional residence to make out separation grounds, and s. 11-102(b) makes the same exclusion for alimony pendente lite.
When it ends, and when it can change
What brings it to an end
Md. Code, Fam. Law s. 11-108, in its entirety: 'Unless the parties agree otherwise, alimony terminates: (1) on the death of either party; (2) on the marriage of the recipient; or (3) if the court finds that termination is necessary to avoid a harsh and inequitable result.' Maryland has NO cohabitation-termination provision and no statutory definition of cohabitation. Cohabitation can reach a Maryland alimony award only through s. 11-108(3), the harsh-and-inequitable-result clause, or as a change of circumstances under s. 11-107(b). Retirement is not addressed as a termination or modification event, although s. 11-106(b)(11)(iv) makes 'the right of each party to receive retirement benefits' a factor at the outset, which is a different thing.
Changing it later
Md. Code, Fam. Law s. 11-107(b): 'Subject to s. 8-103 of this article and on the petition of either party, the court may modify the amount of alimony awarded as circumstances and justice require.' Non-modifiable alimony is expressly permitted, and Maryland is unusually precise about how. Md. Code, Fam. Law s. 8-103(c): 'The court may modify any provision of a deed, agreement, or settlement with respect to alimony or spousal support executed on or after April 13, 1976, regardless of how the provision is stated, unless there is: (1) an express waiver of alimony or spousal support; or (2) a provision that specifically states that the provisions with respect to alimony or spousal support are not subject to any court modification.' Section 8-103(b) states the same rule for provisions 'with respect to spousal support executed on or after January 1, 1976'. The words 'regardless of how the provision is stated' mean that nothing short of an express waiver or an express non-modification clause will do. Section 11-101(c) reinforces the point: 'If a final disposition as to alimony has been made in an agreement between the parties, the court is bound by that agreement as the agreement relates to alimony.'
Worth knowing about Maryland
The three Maryland kinds are not three statutory categories, and a reader should know it. Alimony pendente lite is statutory, in s. 11-102. Indefinite alimony is statutory, in s. 11-106(c). Rehabilitative alimony is NOT: the word 'rehabilitative' does not appear anywhere in Md. Code, Family Law ss. 11-101 through 11-112, all twelve of which were read. What the statute creates is a general power in s. 11-106(a)(1) to fix 'the amount of and the period for an award of alimony', with s. 11-106(c) as a narrow exception permitting an award with no period. 'Rehabilitative alimony' is the practicing name for the ordinary fixed-term award; the label carries no separate statutory test. Maryland also legislates one genuinely unusual power, in s. 11-112: 'When granting a limited divorce, an absolute divorce, or an annulment, if the court finds from the testimony of 2 or more physicians competent in psychiatry that 1 of the parties is permanently and incurably insane with no hope of recovery, then, notwithstanding any agreement between the parties, the court may require a party to: (1) pay alimony or support for the benefit of the insane party; (2) pay a lump sum, based on the life expectancy of the insane party and the financial condition of the other party, together with the insane party's reasonable funeral expenses; or (3) give bond to this State conditioned on the payment for: (i) the care and support of the insane party for the rest of the insane party's life; and (ii) the insane party's reasonable funeral expenses.' Note the words 'notwithstanding any agreement between the parties' — this is the one place in Title 11 where a Maryland court may override the parties' own settlement of alimony.
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, Maryland’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: Md. Code, Tax-General § 10-203 (Maryland adjusted gross income – in general) the state source
The other number that decides your budget
How Maryland calculates child support, and the overnight count that moves it more than income does.
And the question underneath it
What Maryland presumes about custody, and what the judge has to weigh.
The rest of what we have written about Maryland. Every figure is quoted from Maryland’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.