3 Things to Know When Preparing your Financial Statement

After you commence your BC Notice of Family Claim or if you are the Respondent and have served your BC Response and Counter Claim, you will be obligated to file what is called a Financial Statement with the BC Courts and to serve a copy of this document on all of the other parties.

What is a Financial Statement?

In simple terms, a Financial Statement is a snapshot of your income, expenses, assets and debts. You can find the financial statement at the Supreme Court by going here and the Statement of Finances at the Provincial Court of BC by going here.

3 things to consider:

1. Do not report more expenses than your income/debts

If you report more expenses per year than your annual income, you must show that you are somehow meeting the expenses by either incurring debt on your credit cards or other Lines of Credits, etc. If you do not have debts and show that your expenses are higher than your income, then you risk the Court making a ruling or an inference that you have exaggerated your expenses and are not a credible witness.

2. Include all your assets and debts AND also include your spouse’s assets/debts

If you are claiming that a part or half of your spouse’s assets are in fact yours due to being married or being in a common-law relationship, then you need to ‘claim’ those assets and debts in the Financial Statement.

If you do not know the exact value of the assets or debts of your spouse, simply say that the value is ‘unknown’ in the Financial Statement but make sure you include at least the name/existence of the asset or debt.

3. Provide all relevant documents and attach them to the Financial Statement

If you look at the third page of the Financial Statement or Statement of Finances, you will see that you have to provide at least your:

1. 1) Notice of Assessment for the past 3 years
2. 2) Income Tax Returns for the past 3 years
3. 3) If you own a corporation, for the past three years, you must file all financial statements, statements of income, salaries, wages, T2s, etc.

Remember the more documentation you supply to the court, the better. The judge or the opposing party will need to confirm the values, incomes, expenses, etc, you report in the financial statement. Therefore, it is sometimes a good idea to supply the following documents in addition to the necessary documents indicated above: 

• 1. Bank statements for each month for the past three years
• 2. Credit Card statements for each month for the past three years
• 3. BC Assessed Values or Appraisal values for real estate, companies, etc.

Ronak Leena Yousefi is the founder of Yousefi Law Group. For questions or suggestions, please contact her at [email protected] or call 604-974-9529.