Massachusetts Alimony Calculator for Divorce Mediation

Attorney Rueschemeyer mediates divorces for Worcester, Boston, Springfield and ALL Massachusetts courts and counties via Zoom. 

To calculate how much Massachusetts alimony you should pay or receive, simply fill in the following information and click “Calculate”.  You can then download a .pdf of the results and explanation of the results. Since August 2022, this calculator has been primarily for couples who will not be paying/receiving child support. You can learn more about alimony in MA on this page.

If you expect to be paying/receiving child support, you should skip the calculator on this page and go directly to this Cavanagh combined alimony-child support calculator. The August 2022 Cavanagh v. Cavanagh decision means that alimony is more likely to be combined with child support than it was before August 2022.  Judges must now consider two different ways of calculating combined alimony-child support orders. The Cavanagh combined alimony-child support calculator does these calculations for you.

The calculator on this page a) takes into account the payor’s full Social Security age, which can affect the duration of alimony, b) requires no math on your part, and c) determines who the “payor” and “recipient” are instead of asking you to determine this on your own.

This calculator uses the percentages (30%-35%)  from the 2011 Alimony Reform Act to determine maximum alimony amounts but it also shows what maximum alimony would be using a 23% to 28% range. For divorces completed after January 1, 2019, some judges may be using these lower percentages because alimony lost its federal tax deductibility for such cases. The Massachusetts Bar Association has recommended that 2019 cases onward should use 23%-28% of the difference in incomes as the high end for alimony rather than  30%-35%” of the difference, as specified in the 2011 Alimony Reform Act. You can also experiment with different alimony percentages, ranging from 1% to 35%, on the Cavanagh combined alimony-child support calculator.

Enter a name for yourself (fake names are fine)   Entering names makes it much easier to keep track of who has what income and who is paying alimony to whom.:

Enter a name for your spouse (fake names are fine)  Entering names makes it much easier to keep track of who has what income and who is paying alimony to whom.:

Date of Marriage (or date of cohabitation as an economic unit)  This date is used to calculate the length of your marriage, which determines the maximum length of general term alimony. If you lived together before marriage, the date when you began living together as an economic unit, e.g., sharing income and expenses, can be used instead of the date of marriage.:

Date when divorce papers are served or date when 1A forms are filed in court  This date is used to calculate the length of your marriage. If these papers have not been served or filed, give your best guess of the date when it will happen. If you had significant periods of separation during your marriage, a judge can subtract the length of these separation periods from the length of your marriage for the purposes of calculating the duration of general term alimony.:

 

Gross weekly income  Enter the Gross Weekly Income for each spouse. This is the amount of weekly income BEFORE deductions or taxes are taken out.:

(Rare) Weekly Capital Gains or Interest Income (This is $0 for most people.)  If you received assets or property, e.g. a rental property or large stock account, in the division of marital property at divorce, the weekly INCOME generated from this asset should be listed here. This income will be subtracted from your gross weekly income as this income cannot be considered in calculating alimony.:

Weekly gross income used to calculate child support  Enter weekly gross income that has ALREADY been used in the calculation of child support. In other words, if you have calculated child support, enter the amount here that you entered in line 2a of the 2018 or 2021 Massachusetts Child Support Guideline Worksheet. This amount will be subtracted from your gross weekly income for the purpose of calculating alimony. Income that has been considered for the calculation of child support cannot then be counted again for the calculation of alimony.:

Higher earner's date of birth  This birthdate is used to calculate limitations on the duration of general term alimony. The calculator uses this information to retrieve the full Social Security age of the alimony payor and to calculate if the payor will reach this full Social Security age (at which alimony normally ends) before paying the full number of years and months normally required by the spouses' length of marriage.: January February March April May June July August September October November December

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Results

Download alimony results as .pdf

Explanation of Results

Duration of general term alimony

Weekly amount of general term alimony

Length of Marriage Determines Length of Alimony
Find the length of your marriage in full months		Multiple your actual number of (full) months of marriage by this percentage
0 months to 60 months (0 to 5 years)		50%
61 months to 120 months (5+ to 10 years)		60%
121 months to 180 months (10+ to 15 years)		70%
181 months to 240 months (15+ to 20 years)		80%
241 months or more (over 20 years)		No limit to the number of months of alimony.