Home » Marriage / Relationships Articles » Tax Returns Provide a Boon of Information for Divorcing Spouses
Tax Returns Provide a Boon of Information for Divorcing Spouses
Asset and property division is often the most contentious part of a divorce. Information from your spouse's tax return is available to help you make informed decisions.
March 17, 2011 /Marriage - Relationships PR News/ -- Contentious divorces most often hinge on disputes about child custody and property distribution. Many people think that their former spouse is hiding assets during the divorce proceedings, but they feel there is no way to find out without spending massive amounts of time and money. Luckily, that is not always the case. A great deal of information can be gleaned from examining past tax returns.
What Sort of Financial Information Can Be Discovered in Tax Returns?
A wealth of information about a wide range of asset types must be disclosed to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) each year, and that same information is available to you if you filed a joint return with your spouse. Once you sign the tax return, all the information contained within it belongs to you, regardless of who actually earned the income. For less than $60, the IRS can provide you with financial information that you otherwise would have paid a private investigator or attorney thousands of dollars to discover. Of course, the information is yours free of charge if you have a copy of your former returns.
Schedule B
In addition to actual salary and bank account assets disclosed on the front page of a 1040 federal tax return form, Schedule B will provide information about accounts, mutual funds, stock dividends and interest earned if any of those amounts is greater than $1,500. Schedule B also includes disclosures of foreign accounts and trusts, even if those are valued at less than $1,500.
Schedule D
Schedule D is the repository for details about capital gains and losses from the sale of stocks, bonds, property and other assets. This schedule's information is a good starting point for questions about the source of assets, the location of hidden property and how the proceeds of stock sales were spent.
Schedule E
Schedule E is another repository for details about income or losses, but is specific to only a few sources, including:
- Rental real estate (requires disclosure of the type of property and its location)
- Royalties
- Estate/trust income
- Partnerships
- S Corporations
If you are involved in a contentious divorce -- or you anticipate that you will be in the future -- take advantage of the tools offered by the IRS to discover your spouse's true net worth, and consult an experienced family law attorney in your area to learn more about your legal rights and options for moving forward.
Article provided by Wendy Raquel Hernandez
Visit us at www.hernandezfirm.com
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