Step 2C - Determine Income (yours and your spouses)
Your lawyer will need documentation showing your income (if you work outside the home) and the income of your spouse. This is important for a number of reasons, but primarily for child and spousal support.
If your spouse is a salaried employee then your job is easy. Obtain a copy of the most recent pay stub and the most recent Income Tax Return. If you do not have access to either of these, you can obtain a copy of the Income Tax Return by requesting it from the IRS.
Complete Form 4506, Request for Copy of Tax Return and mail it to the IRS address in the instructions along with a $39 fee for each tax year requested. Copies are generally available for returns filed in the current and past 6 years. You can download the form at www.irs.gov.
If your spouse is self employed, then the job of determining their income becomes much more difficult. This is why discretion about your divorce plans is important. You may want to discreetly question your spouse (or if he has one, his business partner or his partner’s spouse) about income. You can attempt to get copies of bank account statements and financial statements of the business.
Another good way to prove income and assets of a self employed spouse is to obtain a copy of a loan application or net worth statement that they may have submitted to a bank or other lending institution for a loan.
Sometimes it is difficult to prove the actual income of a self employed spouse. At this point, gather the information you can. In the case of a self employed spouse, your lawyer will likely have to help you by using the discovery process to obtain and analyze additional information.
In 2004, my ex-wife and i finalized our divorce. At the time I had joint custody of my girls, but now things are alot different. In January 2005, I had paperwork stating I needed to be at the courthouse at 9 am to go infront of Judge Rosemary Chambers. When I arrived I found out that the court date had been changed to January 3rd and by a clerical error, I did not recieve any paperwork. Well, I filed a "motion to reconsider", but it was denied. My ex-wife got everything she wanted. My visitation was cut to once a month at her convience under her supervision. And my childsupport was increased to 846.00 a month. I am the father of these two beautiful girls, but I cannot afford that much a month. I am willing to pay for what I can but I do not deserve to miss out on my children's lives. Since the court date that went wrong, I have seen my children twice. Once in June of 2006 for one hour at Blue Rabbit Paradise, and last weekend for a couple of hours at a skating rink. I would greatly appriciate any help or comments.
Thank You-
Christopher Joel Ramsey
Christopher,
As you may have read in my response to some of the other comments, I an only give general information on this site - not specific legal advice. You need specific legal advice.
I suggest you contact a lawyer that specializes in divorce and take your judgment of divorce and any other court orders entered in your case for the lawyer to review to determine whether you may need to file a motion to modify visitation and/or child support.
As a father of two daughter myself, I wish you the best of luck.