We know that when people go through a divorce it can feel like their world is being turned upside down, and that one of the reasons is uncertainty about the financial future. This can be particularly true in marriages where one spouse earned a higher income than the other.
The reasons for the income disparity can include how decisions regarding child-raising were made to how educations were financed, and more. Whatever the reason is, alimony—or spousal maintenance as its legally termed in the state of Colorado—is aimed at redressing unfair imbalance.
What Spousal Maintenance Is.
It is an analysis undertaken by the court to determine one party’s financial need after the divorce compared to the other party’s ability to pay. The goal is to ensure both spouses are able to live in a manner similar to that which they were accustomed to during the marriage. Now, it’s possible that might not be feasible—perhaps neither will live as well on their own as they did in the marriage—but it is a standard that is aimed at by Colorado family courts.
Factors That Impact Alimony
Colorado law offers judges the opportunity to use a basic formula to calculate alimony payments–start with the combined gross income of the parties, multiply that number by 40 percent and then subtract the lower party’s income from 40% number. If that number is 0 or less then there will likely be no maintenance owed.
Did that make your head spin a bit? Don’t worry. Let’s say the higher-earning spouse is a software engineer pulling down $110,000 a year. The lower-earning spouse works part-time as an office manager and makes $30,000 a year, while taking care of the three grade-school age children. Under the basic formula, add the 2 incomes together to get $140,000. Then take 40% of that total which is $56,000. Then deduct the lower income earners gross income leaving $26,000,00. Divided out over the year, that results in a monthly spousal maintenance payment of $2,166.67. However, this is not the end of the analysis. Because maintenance is no longer tax deductible for the payer under federal law, Colorado has adopted a multiplier to the maintenance amount to account for the lost tax benefit of these payments no longer being tax deductible by the payer. While the multiplier can change, in most situations multiplying the monthly amount by .75 results in an amount that is fairly close to the advisory maintenance amount.
However, as noted above, the maintenance formula is advisory, not compulsory; the judge is not required to use the advisory amount, nor the calculation.
In the event, the judge opts against the basic formula, the discussion over spousal maintenance will hinge on factors like the length of the marriage, respective incomes of the spouses, the job skills of the spouses, investments made in either one’s career with common funds, and their prospects moving forward.
Practical Application of the Law
What we’ve outlined above is the legal architecture within which judges operate and divorce lawyers negotiate. To better illustrate how it might work in the real world, let’s develop a hypothetical scenario and consider different variables…
A young couple got married right after one of them left the Air Force after the first Gulf War. Over the ensuing thirty years, they’ve had four children, of which the non-military spouse devoted themselves full-time to raising. The Air Force veteran started a computer consulting business, which has gone on to thrive. Now, that marriage is coming to an end. What happens?
This is a case where permanent alimony might be argued for. The couple is enjoying a comfortable lifestyle. That financial success is due, in no small part, to the fact that the stay-at-home spouse took on the burden of child-raising and allowed the other to focus like a laser on building the consulting business. Age-wise, the couple is presumably at least in their fifties.
The stay-at-home spouse is certainly able to get a job, especially now that all the kids are out of the house. But, after thirty years out of the workforce, to get employment that will sustain the lifestyle enjoyed during the marriage? That’s a steep hill to climb and a court may well decide to award permanent alimony. If one of the kids is now a disabled adult child that must live at home, the case for permanent alimony is even stronger.
Now let’s consider this same couple, getting married at the same time in their lives. In this circumstance though, the non-Air Force spouse got their law degree from Boulder. In this scenario, they have the four kids, the lawyer spouse does stay at home with the kids, but the marriage ends after 12 years. What happens?
Here, we might be looking at a case for rehabilitative alimony. The spouse with the law degree is well-positioned to enter the workforce and earn a comfortable salary. They just need time to get networked again and perhaps need some updating of appropriate licenses. In a divorce case, expert witness testimony might be summoned to help the court better understand how long this process will take and how much it will cost.
But, the spouse with the law degree argues, they still have the four kids. Those kids are at home. The economically disadvantaged spouse will presumably be in strong position to secure physical custody, in the interests of keeping the children’s lives as stable as possible. Is this spouse really in a prime spot to begin an aggressive career launch with this level of parenting responsibility?
Within this single example, we could weave in even more variables. What if the Air Force spouse helped pay for the other spouse’s law school at CU? What if the stay-at-home spouse did legal work on the computer consulting business? The list goes on.
What all of this underscores is that in a spousal maintenance case everything matters. Every detail of how spouses acquired their income and what made it possible. Every detail about their prospects moving forward. Spouses who are going through what is often an emotionally traumatic time aren’t likely to think of all the pertinent details and remember all the right questions to ask.
That’s why divorce attorneys are here.
KHM Attorneys at Law has decades of experience handling divorce cases. The experience of dealing with so many couples in so many different situations enables us to better understand what factors will work in your favor in a spousal maintenance negotiation. We leverage that experience and fight hard for the best interests of our clients. Call us today 719-635-8499 or contact us online and let us help you.
