Picture two people who shared one chequing account for eleven years and now cannot agree on what either of them earns. One says the other’s side business brings in far more than the tax return shows. The other says that money went straight back into the business. A judge in Brampton who has never met either of them has to make sense of this, and the only reliable way to do so is on paper.
That is why financial disclosure sits at the centre of nearly every support and property case in Ontario. It is not a formality you get to once the real dispute is under way. In most cases it comes first, it is mandatory, and it continues until the case ends. A party cannot opt out because they consider their finances private, and the other party does not have to prove any wrongdoing before asking to see them.
This article gives general information about Ontario’s rules and is not legal advice about your own situation. Requirements can shift with the facts, and a judge can order something different in a particular case.
The rule behind all of this
The main source is Rule 13 of Ontario’s Family Law Rules. It applies in both courts that hear family matters at the courthouse at 7755 Hurontario Street: the Superior Court of Justice and the Ontario Court of Justice. If your application, answer or motion claims support, makes a property claim, or asks for exclusive possession of the matrimonial home, you must serve and file a sworn financial statement along with it. The person responding must do the same within the time they have to answer, and that obligation applies whether or not they actually file an answer.
Ignoring the case therefore does not avoid the disclosure duty. It only means the court may make decisions using the information it has, and that information may be less favourable than the truth would have been.
There is one narrow exception worth knowing. If the only support being claimed is child support at the table amount, the person making that claim does not have to file a financial statement, because that figure depends on the other parent’s income. Add a property claim or a request for exclusive possession of the home and the exception disappears. In parenting cases with no financial claim, a court can still order each party to file a statement if it thinks one is needed.
Form 13 or Form 13.1
Choosing the right form is simple once you know the dividing line:
- Form 13 is used where the case involves support but no property claim and no claim for exclusive possession of the home.
- Form 13.1 is used as soon as there is a property claim or a claim for exclusive possession, whether support is in issue or not.
Both forms ask about income, monthly expenses, assets and debts. Form 13.1 goes further into what you owned on the date of marriage and on the valuation date, which is generally the date of separation where there is no reasonable prospect of getting back together.
Fill in the form with real numbers, and convert them consistently. Pay that arrives weekly must be turned into a monthly figure; Ontario’s family court guide tells you to multiply weekly amounts by 4.3. If you estimate an expense, make sure you can explain how you got there. Remember that this document is sworn or affirmed in front of a commissioner for taking affidavits. Commissioners at family court offices provide this service without charge. A careless figure is a problem later because you may be questioned on it under oath.
The income documents most people must gather
A financial statement on its own is only a set of claims. Rule 13 and section 21 of the child support guidelines require the proof behind it. In a support case, expect to serve the following, unless the court orders otherwise:
- Your personal income tax returns for the three most recent years, including attachments.
- Your notices of assessment and any notices of reassessment for those years.
- Proof of current income, such as your most recent pay stub or a letter from your employer.
- If you are self-employed, financial statements for the business and a breakdown of salaries, wages and benefits paid to people you do not deal with at arm’s length.
- If you earn income through a partnership, corporation or trust, the records showing what you received and the state of those entities.
- If you lost a job in the past three years, your Record of Employment or other proof of termination, along with details of any amounts still owing to you.
- For child support, proof of any special or extraordinary expenses you want shared, such as daycare invoices or orthodontic receipts.
Filing and serving are different things here. The clerk will not accept a financial statement in a support claim unless proof of current income and the three years of notices of assessment are attached. Income tax returns and most other supporting documents, by contrast, are served on the other party and kept out of the court’s continuing record unless the court orders otherwise. A notice of assessment can be obtained through the Canada Revenue Agency, and if one truly cannot be located, the rule allows a CRA Income and Deductions printout instead.
What a property claim adds
Property claims bring a second layer. Within 30 days after your financial statement is due, you have to serve documents showing your position on the valuation date. The list includes:
- the statement closest to that date for each bank account, pension, RRSP, TFSA or other investment
- a copy of your application to have any pension valued
- the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation assessment for any Ontario real estate you had an interest in
- for life insurance, the statement showing face value, cash surrender value and beneficiary
- three years of business records and personal returns if you were self-employed or a partner
- share information and, for a private company, three years of financial statements
You will also need evidence of what you owned and owed on the date of marriage if you plan to claim a deduction for it. This is the part people underestimate. A statement from a bank account that closed years ago may take weeks to retrieve, and a deduction you cannot document is one the other side may contest. If you think a property claim is coming, start requesting older records now rather than after the deadline has started to run. Our overview of family law matters in Ontario explains how these issues fit into the wider case.
The certificate that closes the loop
Once you have served your supporting documents, you must confirm that with a Certificate of Financial Disclosure, Form 13A. It lists what you have provided. You serve it along with the documents and file it no later than six days before a case conference if you are the applicant or the moving party, and four days before if you are the other party. Under the Rules’ counting method, those short periods work out to business days, which is how Ontario’s family court guide describes them.
The certificate gives the court a quick view of who has done what. It also makes it harder for anyone to say, on the morning of a conference, that they already sent everything. Save a clear copy of every document you serve, labelled the way the certificate lists it, along with proof of how and when it was served.
Keeping the information current
Financial disclosure does not stop after the first exchange. Before a case conference or settlement conference, you must update your information if your last statement would be more than 60 days old by the conference date. For a motion the limit is 30 days, and for a trial it is 40 days.
How you update depends on what has changed. If nothing has changed, a short affidavit saying so is enough. If the changes are minor, an affidavit can describe them. If there have been larger changes, such as a job loss, promotion or a sale, you need a fresh financial statement. Your duty also extends to correcting information you later discover was wrong. Rules on these timelines are amended from time to time, and the court’s published guidance can lag behind, so check the current wording of Rule 13 or get advice before relying on an old checklist.
When the numbers look wrong
Suppose you are holding the other party’s statement and something is off. The mortgage payment is higher than the income claimed. A truck was bought with no visible source of funds. The business claims a loss year after year while the family’s lifestyle says otherwise. In Peel, where many people run trucking, trades, or contracting businesses, disagreements about how much of a business’s money is really personal income are common.
The process is orderly. First, make a written request describing the information you need. If it does not arrive within seven days, the court may order it on a motion or at a conference, and you will need to specify in your materials what you asked for and did not receive. Be precise. “All bank records” invites an argument, whereas “statements for the business chequing account from January to June” is much harder to refuse. Once you have made a request, you may also be able to question the other party under Rule 20 about their statement.
A party who still refuses faces real consequences. Under the child support guidelines, a court may impute income to a person who fails to provide required income information, meaning it can treat them as earning an amount it considers appropriate. The court can make costs orders, and the Family Law Rules give it broad powers when someone repeatedly fails to obey the rules or an order. Where property may disappear, judges also have authority at a conference, with notice to the other side, to make temporary orders preserving assets or stopping the destruction of documents.
Disclosure outside of court
People often assume they can skip all of this by settling at a kitchen table. You can certainly settle, but you should still disclose. Ontario’s Family Law Act lets a court set aside a domestic contract, or a part of one, if a party failed to disclose significant assets or significant debts that existed when it was made. An agreement that hides a pension or a rental property may therefore offer far less finality than the person who signed it expected.
The practical lesson runs in both directions. If you are receiving disclosure, resist the temptation to sign quickly just to be finished. If you are giving it, complete disclosure protects you too, because it makes the deal harder to attack later.
Getting organized without getting overwhelmed
The volume can feel out of proportion when you are also dealing with the end of a relationship. A simple system helps:
- Start one folder for each category: income, bank accounts, investments and pensions, real estate, business, debts, and date-of-marriage records.
- Name files so another person can understand them, such as “notice of assessment, last tax year” or “RBC chequing statement, separation month.”
- Keep a running list of what you have asked for, who you asked, and when.
- Note gaps honestly. A missing document should be explained, not quietly omitted.
- Do not move, transfer or close accounts without advice. Unusual activity around the separation date often draws questions.
Be careful, too, about how you obtain the other person’s records. Your right is to ask through the process Rule 13 sets out. Logging into a former partner’s email or banking without permission can create separate legal problems and is rarely worth it.
Complete, honest disclosure tends to make cases shorter because it moves the discussion from suspicion to arithmetic. It also makes any conversation with a mediator or judge more productive. If your finances are simple, you may be able to do most of this yourself with the court’s forms. If there is a corporation, a pension, or a suspicion of hidden income, a lawyer can help you decide what is relevant and how to present it. Our team at Sawan Law House LLP can be reached through the contact page if you would like to discuss your file.