Utah alimony amount
Utah courts consider each spouse’s standard of living, financial needs, earning capacity, and ability to pay when deciding alimony.
Utah Code §81-4-502 requires the court to consider the marital standard of living, the recipient’s financial condition and needs, the recipient’s earning capacity, the payer’s ability to provide support, tax consequences, marriage length, custody of a minor child requiring support, work in the payer’s business, and contributions to the payer’s education or skills. [1]
The statute allows the court to attempt to equalize the spouses’ standards of living. For some marriages of 10 years or more, it creates a rebuttable equalization presumption when the recipient significantly reduced workplace experience under an agreement to care for the payer’s minor child. [1]
Utah alimony duration
Utah alimony generally cannot last longer than the marriage, but the statute allows exceptions.
Section 81-4-502 generally prohibits an alimony period longer than the length of the marriage. Temporary alimony paid while the divorce is pending counts toward that period. Before alimony ends, the court may find extenuating circumstances or good cause that justify a longer period. [1]
If the same spouses married, divorced, and later remarried each other, and the divorce petition for the subsequent marriage was filed on or after January 1, 2026, §81-4-502 directs the court to consider the aggregate length of both marriages for the ordinary duration limit. The statute excludes the period between the prior divorce-petition filing and remarriage, and the court may decline aggregation if it finds aggregation would be inequitable. This calculator asks for the two marriage lengths and can calculate that statutory aggregate, but it cannot decide the inequity exception. [1]
Questions about Utah alimony calculations.
Does Utah have an alimony formula?
Utah Code §81-4-502 lists factors and allows courts to equalize living standards in appropriate cases, but it does not provide one statewide percentage formula for the dollar amount.
How long can alimony last in Utah?
Utah alimony generally may not last longer than the marriage, with temporary alimony counting toward the period. A court may extend support for extenuating circumstances or good cause.
Does a 10-year Utah marriage guarantee equal incomes?
No. The 10-year rule applies only when additional statutory conditions involving significantly diminished workplace experience and child care are met, and the presumption can be rebutted for good cause.
Utah alimony sources and calculator limits
Public-source check: September 7, 2026. Current calculator rules release: 0.18.0. Current Utah §81-4-502 is effective March 23, 2026. This page uses the current marriage length for the ordinary duration ceiling and, when the statutory same-spouse remarriage conditions are confirmed, adds the first marriage length entered to show the statutory aggregate. It does not decide whether aggregation would be inequitable, entitlement, a court-selected amount, fault, modification, cohabitation, remarriage termination, or tax consequences. It is not attorney reviewed.