Tips to Avoid Trouble with Financial Affidavits

In family court, each party is required to submit financial affidavits. The form is approved by the Supreme Court of Illinois with very specific requirements. Mistakes with this form can have significant consequences.

• Confirm the date at paragraph 2 coincides with the date of your signature and the date for income in paragraph 6b.
  
• Attach the documents listed in paragraph 3 with any documents that you have for the last 6 months and 2 years of tax returns.
  
• Paragraph 5 asks about adults living with you who help with expenses. If you have an adult child, relative, or friend staying with you or that you are staying with and they are contributing to expenses, check yes.
  
• Paragraph 6b requests gross income for this year. This includes all income, including gifts, IRA withdrawals, side jobs, and more. Income includes all those listed in paragraph 8 before taxes.
  
• Paragraph 6c seeks self-employment income. This includes hobby activities like Mary Kay or other friend-to-friend sales.
  
• Paragraph 7 asks for specific information about tax returns. It is important to review the returns and not simply guess.
  
• It will be apparent that some expenses and income are not monthly. I urge clients to look at a year of records and divide those expenses by 12 to provide the best estimate. This applies to vacations, home repairs, auto repairs, and appliance replacement.
  
• When calculating the other detailed expenses, we encourage you to create a spreadsheet from your bank statements and credit card statements rather than simply providing an estimate.
  
• Health insurance plans often have one premium for a single individual, one for the individual and their spouse, and one for family coverage. Do not take the total premium and divide it by the number of people covered. Check with your employer to verify the actual sums.
  

For more information, please contact:

Wakeman Law Group, PC

741 S. McHenry Ave., Suite A

Crystal Lake, IL 60014

Ph: 815-893-6800

wakemanlaw.net