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What Is a Financial Affidavit?

Regarding Marital and Family law cases, a financial affidavit is a document that show your gross income, net income, monthly expenses, assets, debts, and whether you have a surplus or deficit at the end of the month.

It is required that you file a financial affidavit in all domestic cases. If you make less than $50,000, you file a short form financial affidavit. If you make 50,000, or more than $50,000, you file a long form financial affidavit.

The financial affidavit is used to determined your income for child support and alimony. That is why is is extremely important to be very specific and extremely accurate when filling out your financial affidavit.

For child support purposes, the parties or the court will use your net income in the financial affidavit to determine child support under the child support guideline worksheets. That is why it is so important to make sure you list all your taxes, health insurance costs for just you, and mandatory retirement that is deducted from your gross income to get your correct net income.

For alimony, the court will look to see if you have a deficit each month and a need for alimony. The court will also look to see if the other spouse has a surplus every month, and the ability to pay alimony.

That is why it is crucial to list all your expenses very accurately. If you do not properly list all your expenses, you could be off on your monthly expenses in your calculations by hundreds of dollars. That could severely negatively impact you in the future. That is why it is very important to take the time and carefully fill out the financial affidavit.

You can use your pay stub as a guide to help you fill out your financial affidavit.