You can hide money from your spouse all you want while you’re married. He or she may or may not find out at one point or another. If your marriage ends in divorce, however, your spouse is going to find out about all of it. If you choose to hide financial information during a divorce, you are breaking the law. It may be tempting, but it’s not worth being fined or going to jail over.
What Could Be Considered Hiding Finances?
There are spouses during divorce proceedings who will try a lot of tricks to hang onto as much money as possible. Any type of deceit is illegal, so if you suspect your spouse of doing this, be sure you bring it up with your attorney. Some actions that would be considered illegally hiding finances include:
- Physically hiding the money, such as withdrawing cash from a bank account and storing it at your brother’s house.
- Undervaluing marital property, such as providing a false appraisal for a vintage car, vacation home or other large asset.
- Overstating debts.
- Incorrectly reporting income.
- Reporting higher than actual expenses.
You may wonder why it would be a crime to overstate your debts. This could be due to the fact that many couples get into debt together, and should share the responsibility to pay it back. If you have overstated debt to any degree, your spouse will be asked to pay back a higher amount than you would actually end up paying back.
Another issue you may wonder about is incorrectly reporting income. While it makes sense that a spouse might want to offer up a lower than actual income to try to receive spousal support, it’s also illegal to report a higher than actual income.
What If a Spouse Doesn’t Realize This Is Happening?
If your spouse is lying about the finances, and you don’t realize it’s happening, you may lose out on child support, spousal support and even split assets. This is why it’s important you have a qualified attorney to help you handle the case. If your spouse claims he or she didn’t know the reported finances were falsified, refer the spouse to the financial affidavit that was signed. That document is basically each spouse swearing that what he or she stated about the marital finances is true.
Contacting an Attorney to Assist in Your Case
When you are getting a divorce, you want everything that is owed to you. To learn more about splitting finances and what could be considered illegal, contact a family lawyer, like a coronavirus uncontested divorce lawyer, in Tampa, FL, today.
Thank you to the experts at The Mckinney Law Group for their input into coronavirus, uncontested divorce, and the law.