There is no alimony calculator in New Jersey

Search for a New Jersey alimony calculator and you will find plenty of them. They are all guessing. New Jersey has no alimony formula, no guidelines, and no schedule of amounts — nothing like the Child Support Guidelines that produce a presumptive number from both parents' incomes. Alimony in New Jersey is decided by a judge weighing a list of statutory factors, and two couples with identical incomes can land in genuinely different places.

What the statute actually says

N.J.S.A. 2A:34-23(b) sets out the factors a court must consider. They include the actual need of one spouse and the other's ability to pay; the duration of the marriage or civil union; the age and physical and emotional health of both; the standard of living established during the marriage and the likelihood each can maintain something reasonably comparable; earning capacities, education, training and employability; how long either spouse was out of the job market; parental responsibilities; the time and expense needed to acquire education or training sufficient to find appropriate employment; the equitable distribution of property ordered in the case and any payouts from it; the income available to either party through investment of assets; the tax treatment and consequences of the award; and each party's non-financial contributions to the marriage.

The statute is explicit that no one factor is given more weight than the others by default, and that a court which finds some factors more relevant than others has to say so in writing. That requirement exists precisely because there is no formula to point at.

Four kinds, not one

• Open durational alimony — awarded in longer marriages, with no fixed end date. It replaced 'permanent alimony', which New Jersey abolished in the 2014 amendments.
• Limited duration alimony — support for a defined number of years, used where a marriage was shorter but a period of support is still warranted.
• Rehabilitative alimony — support tied to a specific plan to get a spouse back to self-sufficiency: a degree, a certification, a return to a field.
• Reimbursement alimony — repayment for supporting a spouse through education or training on the shared expectation of a later benefit that the divorce cuts short.

The twenty-year line

For a marriage or civil union that lasted less than twenty years, the total duration of alimony ordinarily may not exceed the length of the marriage itself. A court can go beyond that only in exceptional circumstances, and the statute lists what those can be — a chronic illness, a spouse who gave up a career, unusual dependency. Above twenty years, that ceiling does not apply, which is where open durational alimony usually lives.

Two things that changed and still surprise people

Alimony is no longer deductible by the person paying it, and no longer taxable income to the person receiving it, for agreements executed after 31 December 2018. That was a federal tax change, not a New Jersey one, but it changed the arithmetic of every negotiation that assumed the old treatment — an amount that was affordable pre-tax is a different amount now.

The other is that alimony can be modified. An award is not a permanent fact; a substantial, permanent change in circumstances can support an application to change or end it, and the statute has specific provisions about retirement and about a recipient cohabiting with someone else.

What most amicable couples actually do

They waive it, in both directions, knowingly — two working spouses in a shorter marriage who each keep what they earn. That is a perfectly ordinary outcome and it is what most of the couples this software is built for agree to. But 'we both waive alimony' is a real decision with real consequences, and a waiver in a signed settlement agreement is hard to undo later. If either of you earns substantially more, if one of you left the workforce, or if the marriage was long, that decision deserves an hour with a New Jersey family lawyer before you sign it — not a calculator.

Clear Parting Docs is not a law firm and this is general legal information, not legal advice about your situation. For advice you can rely on, talk to a New Jersey attorney — any one you choose.