Q: What is maintenance?
 
A: Maintenance is what used to be referred to as alimony. Maintenance is an award by the court of support to your spouse for a fixed period of time (three years, five years, etc.) or for an indefinite period of time, which can be for as long as he/she lives, for as long as you live, or until he/she remarries – whichever comes sooner.

Q: How long is maintenance paid?
 
A: It depends. The court takes several factors into consideration, such as how long it will take for the supported spouse to become self-supporting. Other factors the court may consider are whether schooling is necessary, the health of the recipient, the recipient’s age, and the payor’s financial ability to pay the support.

Q: What is the usual duration of maintenance?
 
A: While there is no set rule, the decision is discretionary with the court, and each case must therefore be decided on its facts. Three to five years is a very common award unless the duration of the marriage is ten years or less.

Q: When will a court order non-durational maintenance?

A: Generally in long-term marriages (more than ten years) where the recipient is in his/her late forties or older, with no expectation of becoming self-supporting, and where the party paying support has the financial ability to do so. In such cases, the court may order that maintenance continues until death, remarriage, or upon the recipient living with another person that the recipient holds out as a spouse.

Q: Who pays taxes on maintenance?
 
A: It is normally taxable to the recipient as income and a deduction to the person who pays it. (This is different than child support, where there is no deduction for the parent paying and no taxable income for the parent receiving).

Q: How does a court determine the amount of maintenance?
 
A: The court looks at the reasonable needs of the recipient (based upon the prior standard of living) and the income and assets of the recipient, balanced against the income and assets of the party paying the support. While Domestic Relations Law Section 236 lists many factors to consider in making the award, it tends to boil down to an analysis of reasonable needs versus ability to pay.

Q: How much discretion does the court have in determining the amount and duration of a maintenance award?

A: Tons. Unlike child support, there are no set guidelines and the practical reality is there can be differences in awards based upon the same facts, depending upon how the court sees it. How your attorney presents the facts may well affect the court’s determination.