# Illinois spousal maintenance formula and duration

> How Illinois calculates spousal maintenance: the 33 1/3 percent formula, the 40 percent cap, the duration multipliers, and when the guideline stops applying.

Illinois maintenance runs on arithmetic, and the arithmetic is short enough to do on your phone. What trips people up is that the formula is the second question, not the first. Before any of it applies, the judge has to decide that maintenance is appropriate at all, and if the answer is no, the length of the marriage does not matter.

## How is spousal maintenance calculated in Illinois?

In two steps, and [section 504](https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ILCS/details?ActID=2086&ChapterID=59&ChapAct=750%2BILCS%2B5%2F&SeqStart=6200000&SeqEnd=8675000) sets both.

**Step one is entitlement.** The court makes a finding on whether an award is appropriate at all, after considering fourteen factors: the income and property of each party, the needs of each party, realistic present and future earning capacity, any impairment to the asking spouse's earning capacity from domestic duties or forgone education and career opportunities, any impairment to the paying spouse's earning capacity, the time needed for the asking spouse to get education, training and employment, the effect of the parenting arrangement on a party's ability to work, the standard of living established during the marriage, the duration of the marriage, age and health and occupation and needs, all sources of public and private income including disability and retirement, tax consequences, contributions the asking spouse made to the other's education or career or license, any valid agreement of the parties, and anything else the court expressly finds just and equitable.

If the court does not find an award appropriate, it bars maintenance regardless of how long the marriage lasted. A thirty year marriage produces nothing if the entitlement finding goes the other way.

**Step two is the number.** Once maintenance is appropriate, the court orders guideline maintenance or explains why it is not.

## What is the Illinois maintenance formula?

Take 33 1/3 percent of the payor's net annual income and subtract 25 percent of the payee's net annual income.

`maintenance = (33 1/3% × payor net) − (25% × payee net)`

Then apply the cap. The amount calculated as maintenance, when added to the payee's net income, may not leave the payee with more than 40 percent of the parties' combined net income. If the formula result breaks that ceiling, the award comes down to the ceiling.

Worked through with round numbers: a payor with $180,000 of net income and a payee with $40,000 produces $60,000 − $10,000, or $50,000 a year. Adding that to the payee's $40,000 gives $90,000 out of $220,000 combined, which is 41 percent, so the award drops to $88,000 − $40,000, or $48,000, to land the payee exactly at 40 percent.

### When does the Illinois maintenance guideline apply?

Two conditions, and both have to hold:

- **Combined gross annual income under $500,000.** Over that line the guideline does not apply and the court sets a non-guideline award on the fourteen factors.
- **No prior-relationship obligation.** The payor must have no obligation to pay child support or maintenance, or both, from a prior relationship.

There is also a release valve inside the guideline. If applying it produces a combined maintenance and child support obligation exceeding 50 percent of the payor's net income, the court may set non-guideline maintenance, non-guideline child support, or both.

### What counts as income for Illinois maintenance?

Net income has the meaning it carries in [section 505](https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ILCS/details?ActID=2086&ChapterID=59&ChapAct=750%2BILCS%2B5%2F&SeqStart=6200000&SeqEnd=8675000), the child support section, except that maintenance payments in the pending proceeding are excluded. Gross income means all income from all sources within the scope of that phrase in section 505, again excluding maintenance in the pending case.

That cross-reference matters more than it looks. It means the business income rules from the child support statute apply here too: net business income is gross receipts minus ordinary and necessary expenses, the accelerated component of depreciation comes out of the expense side, and significant in-kind benefits like a company car or free housing count as income where they reduce personal expenses. A self-employed payor's tax return is a starting point, not an answer, and the [financial affidavit chapter](https://www.counselpro.ai/divorce-guide/illinois/financial-affidavit-and-discovery) covers how the documents behind it get pulled.

## How long does spousal maintenance last in Illinois?

Length of the marriage times a multiplier, and the multiplier climbs with every year:

| Length of marriage | Multiplier |
| --- | --- |
| Less than 5 years | .20 |
| 5 to under 6 years | .24 |
| 6 to under 7 years | .28 |
| 7 to under 8 years | .32 |
| 8 to under 9 years | .36 |
| 9 to under 10 years | .40 |
| 10 to under 11 years | .44 |
| 11 to under 12 years | .48 |
| 12 to under 13 years | .52 |
| 13 to under 14 years | .56 |
| 14 to under 15 years | .60 |
| 15 to under 16 years | .64 |
| 16 to under 17 years | .68 |
| 17 to under 18 years | .72 |
| 18 to under 19 years | .76 |
| 19 to under 20 years | .80 |

_Illinois maintenance duration multipliers, from 750 ILCS 5/504(b-1)(1)(B)._

The length of the marriage is measured at the time the action was commenced. A twelve year marriage produces 12 × .52, or 6.24 years of maintenance.

At twenty years the table stops and the court's discretion takes over. For a marriage of 20 or more years, the court shall order maintenance for a period equal to the length of the marriage, or for an indefinite term.

One credit is easy to miss. In the court's discretion, any term of temporary maintenance already paid under a section 501 order may count against the duration calculated from the multiplier. If temporary support has been running for two years by the time of judgment, that is two years worth arguing about.

## What are the four kinds of Illinois maintenance?

The court has to say which one it is ordering, in as many words:

- **Fixed-term.** The court designates when it ends, and maintenance is barred after that period. This is the standard output of the multiplier table.
- **Indefinite.** No termination date, continuing until modified or terminated under section 510.
- **Reviewable.** A specific term with a review at the end, where the court makes a fresh finding rather than letting it simply expire.
- **Reserved.** The court leaves the question open for later.

The findings requirement goes further than the label. The court has to state its reasoning with reference to each relevant factor, and if it deviates from the guideline it has to state the amount or duration the guideline would have produced and its reasons for the variance.

## Can Illinois maintenance be changed later?

Only on a substantial change in circumstances, and only if you did not sign it away.

[Section 510(a-5)](https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ILCS/details?ActID=2086&ChapterID=59&ChapAct=750%2BILCS%2B5%2F&SeqStart=6200000&SeqEnd=8675000) says an order for maintenance may be modified or terminated only on a showing of a substantial change in circumstances. Foreseeability is not a defense: contemplation or foreseeability of a future event is not considered in deciding whether a substantial change has been shown, unless the order or the parties' agreement expressly names that event.

On a modification or review, the court weighs the section 504 entitlement factors plus nine more, including any change in either party's employment status and whether it was made in good faith, the efforts the receiving spouse made to become self-supporting and whether those efforts were reasonable, any impairment of either party's earning capacity, tax consequences, how long maintenance has already been paid relative to the length of the marriage, the property each party received in the judgment and its present status, and the increase or decrease in each party's income since the last order.

The parties can take the whole question off the table. Under [section 502(f)](https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ILCS/details?ActID=2086&ChapterID=59&ChapAct=750%2BILCS%2B5%2F&SeqStart=6200000&SeqEnd=8675000), they may provide that maintenance is non-modifiable in amount, duration, or both. Absent that, both stay modifiable. Property provisions, by contrast, are never modifiable, which is why some Illinois settlements trade a bigger property award for a smaller maintenance number. The [property division chapter](https://www.counselpro.ai/divorce-guide/illinois/property-division) covers what that trade looks like from the other side.

## What about maintenance orders entered before 2019?

They keep their old tax treatment and their own formula. For an order entered before January 1, 2019 that remains includable in the payee's gross income and deductible by the payor, modification is calculated by taking 30 percent of the payor's gross annual income minus 20 percent of the payee's gross annual income, capped so the payee does not receive more than 40 percent of combined gross income, unless both parties expressly provide otherwise in the modification order.

The federal tax change in 2019 is what split the statute in two. Payments under orders entered after that date are not deductible by the payor and not taxable to the payee, which is why the current formula runs on net income and the old one runs on gross.

## Can maintenance be secured by life insurance in Illinois?

Yes, within limits. [Section 504(f)](https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ILCS/details?ActID=2086&ChapterID=59&ChapAct=750%2BILCS%2B5%2F&SeqStart=6200000&SeqEnd=8675000) lets an award be secured in whole or in part by life insurance on the payor's life.

For a policy that already exists, the court may allocate death benefits, the right to assign them, and the obligation for future premiums as it deems just, provided it has evidence on the benefit level, the premium and the other relevant facts. For new insurance, the court's power is narrower: it may only order the payor to cooperate with the steps needed for the payee to obtain it, and let the payee buy it at their own expense up to a death benefit level the court sets.

Source: https://www.counselpro.ai/divorce-guide/illinois/spousal-maintenance