You must usually serve and file financial disclosure if your case involves child support, spousal support, or property issues. Rule 13 of the Family Law Rules tells you about financial disclosure.
Financial disclosure means giving the other party and the court information about your finances, including your:
- Income (how much you make).
- Expenses (how much you spend on things like rent and childcare).
- Assets (how much property or other valuables you own).
- Debts (any money you owe).
You should serve and file your financial disclosure as soon as possible in your case.
Financial Statements
You must usually complete, serve, and file a Financial Statement if your case involves:
- Child support claims.
- Spousal support claims.
- Claims relating to property or debts.
In some cases, you do not have to file a Financial Statement, including if:
- Your case involves child support, but not spousal support or property issues, and you want the other party to only pay the table amount of child support under the Child Support Guidelines.
- You and the other party are filing a motion to change child support or spousal support on consent and you both agree that Financial Statements do not need to be filed.
- You are only making claims related to family arbitration.
There are two different types of Financial Statements:
Your Financial Statement must be served on the other party and then filed with the court:
- With the documents that contain your claim (for example, your application or motion), if you are making a support or property claim, or
- Within the time for serving and filing your responding documents (for example, your answer, reply, or affidavit in response to a motion), if you are responding to the other party’s support or property claim.
Supporting Financial Documents
Financial Documents for Child or Spousal Support Claims
If your case involves child or spousal support issues (regardless of whether or not there are property issues), you must give the other party:
- Proof of your current income (for example, your most recent pay stub, social assistance statement, or pension stub that shows how much you earn in a year).
- A copy of your personal income tax return for each of the past three years.
- A copy of your Notices of Assessment and any Notices of Reassessment from the Canada Revenue Agency for each of the past three years. You can contact the Canada Revenue Agency at 1-800-959-8281 to get copies of these documents.
- If you are self-employed:
- A copy of your financial statements for your business or professional practice (other than a partnership) for each of the past three years, and
- A statement showing a breakdown of all salaries, wages, and other benefits paid to others for the past three years.
- Proof of any income from a partnership, corporation, or trust for the past three years.
- Proof of any income received from employment insurance, social insurance, a pension, workers compensation, disability payments, or any other income source for the past three years.
- If you’ve been unemployed within the past three years:
- A copy of your Record of Employment or other proof that your job ended, and
- A statement of any income or benefits that you have received or will receive from your former employer.
- If you’re asking that the other party contribute to a child’s special or extraordinary expenses, proof of the amount of those expenses (for example, receipts for a child’s daycare or orthodontic treatments).
These documents must be served on the other party:
- With your Financial Statement (Form 13) if your case involves child or spousal support issues but not property issues, or
- Within 30 calendar days after your Financial Statement (Form 13.1) is due to be served if your case involves property issues (whether or not your case also involves support issues).
All these documents must be served on the other party. However, only some of them must be filed with the court, including your:
- Proof of current income.
- Your Notices of Assessment and any Notices of Reassessment from the Canada Revenue Agency for the past three years.
Financial Documents for Property or Debt Claims
If your case involves property issues, you need to give the other party more financial documents. These documents should be dated closest to the time that you and the other party separated. Financial documents regarding property may include:
- Statements of your bank accounts, savings plans, and other investments (including Registered Retirement Savings Plans).
- If you have a pension, a copy of an application to value your pension.
- A copy of the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation’s assessment of any property in Ontario that you had an interest in on the valuation date.
- A document that shows the cash value of any life insurance policies that you have, and the named beneficiaries.
- If you have an interest in a sole proprietorship or are self-employed:
- A copy of the financial statements for your business or professional practice (other than a partnership) for each of the past three years, and
- A copy of your personal income tax returns for the past three years.
- If you have an interest in a partnership:
- A copy of the partnership agreement,
- A copy of your personal income tax returns for the past three years, and
- A copy of the financial statements for the partnership for the past three years.
- If you have an interest in a corporation, documents to show the number and types of shares or other interests you own. If your interest is in a privately held corporation, this will include Financial Statements and, in some cases, corporate income tax returns.
- Documents to show the interest you have in any trusts.
- Statements showing the debts you owe (for example, mortgages and credit cards).
- Documents showing the value, on the date you married, of any property that you owned or debts that you owed. These are called deductions.
You must give these documents to the other party within 30 calendar days after your Financial Statement (Form 13.1) was due to be served.
You do not need to file these documents with the court, unless a judge orders otherwise.
Certifying Your Financial Disclosure
You must confirm which financial documents you have served on the other party by completing Form 13A: Certificate of Financial Disclosure. This form must be served with your financial documents on the other party. You must then file Form 13A with the court either before or with your first case conference materials.
Steps to Complete, Serve, and File Your Financial Statement and Supporting Financial Documents
You need to take the following steps to complete, serve, and file your financial disclosure:
- Get the Financial Statement (Form 13 or Form 13.1) and Certificate of Financial Disclosure (Form 13A), which is available online or at your local family court office.
- Fill out your Financial Statement (Form 13 or Form 13.1). Here are some tips to keep in mind:
- Pay attention to the timing of the information you are providing – you may have to provide financial information from a certain time period.
- Multiply the weekly cost of an expense by 4.3 to get the monthly amount.
- Multiply the monthly cost of an expense by 12 to get the yearly amount.
- Divide the annual cost by 12 to get the monthly cost.
- If you handwrite the information, make sure it is clear and legible.
- Fill out all the information you are asked for. Court staff cannot fill in the forms for you.
- Swear or affirm that the information in your Financial Statement (Form 13 or Form 13.1) is true, and sign it, in front of a commissioner for taking affidavits. There are commissioners at all family court offices who will commission the form for free.
- Collect your financial documents and fill out Form 13A: Certificate of Financial Disclosure.
- Make at least two photocopies of all your completed forms – one copy for yourself, one copy for the other party, and the original for the court.
- Serve the other party with a copy of your:
- Completed Financial Statement (Form 13 or Form 13.1).
- Completed Certificate of Financial Disclosure (Form 13A).
- All supporting financial documents.
You can find more information about how to serve documents in A Guide to Procedures in Family Court, Part 6: Serving Documents. You may also refer to Rule 6 in the Family Law Rules.
- Complete and swear or affirm Form 6B: Affidavit of Service to prove that you served the required financial forms and documents on the other party.
- File at the court the original versions of your:
- Completed Financial Statement (Form 13 or Form 13.1).
- Completed Certificate of Financial Disclosure (Form 13A).
- Certain supporting financial documents (including proof of your current income and your Notices of Assessment and any Notices of Reassessment for the past three years).
- Completed Affidavit of Service (Form 6B).
You can find more information about how to file documents in A Guide to Procedures in Family Court, Part 5: Filing Documents.
Get Help Completing Your Court Forms
If you want help filling out the financial disclosure forms and you don’t have a lawyer, you can:
You can find more information about these resources in A Guide to Procedures in Family Court, Part 1: Information Before You Start Your Family Case.
Updating Your Financial Disclosure
Updating Financial Statements
You must update your Financial Statement (Form 13 or Form 13.1):
- Before any case conference, motion, settlement conference, or trial if your last Financial Statement is more than 30 calendar days old, or
- If there has been a significant change in your financial situation (e.g., amount of income), regardless of the stage of your case.
Depending on how much your financial situation has changed, you can update your Financial Statement by completing:
- A new Financial Statement (Form 13 or Form 13.1), if there have been significant changes to your financial situation, or
- Form 14A: Affidavit (General) that either lists minor changes to your last Financial Statement or confirms that your last statement is still accurate.
You must then serve and file your updated Financial Statement (Form 13 or Form 13.1) or Affidavit (Form 14A):
- 7 calendar days before a case conference, motion, settlement conference, or trial if you asked for the court date, or if you are the applicant and no other party asked for the date (for example, a judge scheduled the date), or
- 4 business days before a case conference, motion, settlement conference, or trial if the other party scheduled the court date, or if you are the respondent and no other party asked for the date.
Updating Financial Documents and Certificates of Financial Disclosure
At any stage in your case, if you realize that a financial document you served or filed is incorrect, incomplete, or out-of-date, you must serve a corrected or updated document on the other party and, where required, file it with the court. For example, if you previously provided a pay stub to the other party but recently lost your job, the pay stub would now be out of date. You must give an updated document to the other party that shows your current income (for example, a social assistance statement).
If you serve a corrected or updated financial document, you must also serve and file an updated Form 13A: Certificate of Financial Disclosure before or with any settlement conference or trial management conference materials.
Other Financial Disclosure Forms
You may need to serve and file more financial disclosure forms, depending on the issues and the stage of your court case.
Generally, if you or the other party made claims regarding property, you must complete:
- Form 13B: Net Family Property Statement. This form must be served on the other party and filed with the court:
- At least 30 calendar days before a settlement conference, and
- Within 30 calendar days, but no later than 7 calendar days, before trial.
- Form 13C: Comparison of Net Family Property Statements. This form should be completed jointly with the other party, if possible, and filed at least 7 calendar days before a settlement conference. If you and the other party cannot complete this form together, you must each serve and file your own form at least:
- 7 calendar days before a settlement conference if you asked for the conference, or if you are the applicant and no other party asked for the conference (for example, a judge scheduled the conference), or
- 4 business days before a settlement conference if you received a notice of conference from the other party, or if you are the respondent and no other party asked for the conference.
