Do you know that both you and your spouse need to disclose all assets if you end your marriage? It’s the only way for the court to help you split them up in accordance with state laws. You can’t lie about what you own. You can’t fudge the numbers. You can’t try to hide assets.
However, people still do it. A few ways that your spouse may attempt it include:
- Overpaying on taxes.
- Making up fake expenses at work.
- Putting money in another account.
- Making cash withdrawals.
- Giving money or assets to friends or family members.
- Transferring assets to a business.
- Putting off raises, commissions, payments and other types of income.
- Buying expensive items and undervaluing them.
- Undervaluing items you already own.
- Underreporting income.
These are just a few examples. As you can see, if you don’t know what your finances look like, it’s often very hard to spot these discrepancies. Your spouse may count on that and try to hide assets so that you don’t notice.
Is there a better way?
To start with, hiding assets is not something your spouse can do legally. It can make the divorce complex and they could face all sorts of serious ramifications when the truth comes out. As noted above, you have to give the court an accurate picture of your finances.
But is there a better way to go through divorce overall? Is there a way to eliminate the type of conflict that comes with the marital split? What can you do to make things go smoothly?
One option is mediation. This is the process of working with your spouse. You don’t have to let the court decide everything. You don’t have to go through all of the complexities of this legal process. You can work together to decide things with a mediator and then run them through the court in a low-conflict divorce.
That’s not possible if your ex hides assets, but that’s why both of you need to understand the advantages of being honest and upfront about everything. You’re going to waste a lot more time, money and energy attempting to hide assets and dragging out the process than you will by cooperating from the beginning. If your spouse knows this, he or she may never attempt to hide anything in the first place. It’s all about having the right mindset and focusing on the end results.
Your rights
You can see that there are two very different ways that a divorce can go. No matter which direction yours goes, make sure you know what legal options you have in Ohio.
