Financial Declaration

Do you need to complete a financial declaration?

Some family law cases require you to complete a financial declaration. This is a detailed picture of your entire financial situation.

Use this table to help you understand whether you must complete a financial declaration.

 

Completing a financial declaration form

If you are required to complete a financial declaration you must complete all of it and use the court-approved form. This is available in the forms section below.

Follow the instructions on the form, completing all sections and attaching additional sheets if necessary.

For paragraph 7 (Monthly Expenses), you must complete the Current Amount column. The Marital Expenses column only needs to be completed if one or both parties are requesting alimony.

You must also include the following required attachments:

• Copies of statements that are reasonably available to you verifying the items and amounts listed on the form;
• Copies for the two tax years before the petition was filed, complete federal and state income tax returns, including Form W-2 and supporting tax schedules and attachments, filed by or on you behalf or by or on behalf of any entity in which you have a majority or controlling interest, including, but not limited to, Form 1099 and Form K-1;
• Pay stubs and other evidence of all earned and un-earned income for the 12 months before the petition was filed;
• All loan applications and financial statements prepared by or used by you within the 12 months before the petition was filed;
• Documents verifying the value of all real estate in which you have an interest, including, but not limited to, the most recent appraisal, tax valuation and refinance documents;
• All statements for the 3 months before the petition was filed for all financial accounts, including, but not limited to, checking, savings, money market funds, certificates of deposit, brokerage, investment, retirement, regardless of whether the account has been closed including those held in your name, jointly with another person or entity, or as a trustee or guardian, or in someone else’s name on that your behalf.

If any of these documents are not reasonably available or are in the other party’s possession, you must estimate the amounts entered and explain the basis for the estimate and why the documents are not available.

 

Time for disclosure

You must serve the financial declaration and attachments on the other party within 14 days after filing of the first answer.

You must serve amendments to the financial declaration if there is new information or if there are changes to the information. Service is governed by URCP 5. See our page on serving papers for more information.

You must file a certificate of service with the court stating that you sent the financial declaration and attachments to the other party.

Do not file the financial declaration with the court until there is a hearing at which the judge or commissioner must decide a financial question related to spouse support, child support, equitable allocation of property and debts or responsibility for attorney fees and court costs. The most common hearings that will require the parties to file the financial declaration are:

• hearing on motion for a temporary order;
• pretrial and trial hearing on petition for temporary separation
• pretrial and trial hearing on petition for divorce;
• pretrial and trial hearing on petition to modify custody order;
• pretrial and trial hearing on petition to modify support order; and
• other hearings when requested by the court.

If you need to file a financial declaration with the court, file only the financial declaration form itself and attach to it verification of all earned and un-earned income for the 12 months before the petition was filed, such as your most recent pay stub showing year-to-date wages and your most recent federal tax form 1040, 1040A or 1040EZ. Do not file the other attachments described in URCP 26.1 unless the court directs you to do so.

If the court is going to order child support, you will have to provide to the court the child support worksheet and other financial information required by Utah Code Section 81-6-107. The child support worksheet and other information required by the statute, although similar, are independent of the required disclosure of the financial declaration form. For more information and forms, see our webpage on Child Support.

 

Other disclosures required

A financial declaration is part of the initial disclosures required in a domestic case. See our Initial Disclosures page for more information.

 

Failure to disclose or to comply with financial declaration requirements

Failure to fully disclose all assets and income in the financial declaration form and attachments may subject the non-disclosing party to sanctions under URCP 37. Sanctions may include an award of non-disclosed assets to the other party, attorney’s fees or other sanctions that the court finds appropriate.

Failure of a party to comply with URCP 26.1 does not keep the other party from obtaining a default judgment, proceeding with the case, or seeking other relief from the court.

 

Forms

You can use the forms listed below or use OCAP, the Online Court Assistance Program, to prepare your Financial Declaration.

Forms for the party starting the case

• 1905FA
• 1903FA
• 1904FA

Forms for the opposing party

• 1903FA
  
• 1904FA