Filling Out a Financial Disclosure Affidavit

Financial means related to money.

Disclosure means to make public.

Affidavit means a sworn statement.

Yes.

Both parents are entitled to a copy of the other parent’s financial disclosure affidavit. If you want a copy of the other parent’s financial disclosure affidavit, you can go to the record room, ask for the case file, and make a photocopy.

When a parent applies for and receives public assistance (also called cash assistance or welfare) from the City, the parent gives the City his or her right to collect child support from the child’s other parent. (To assign means to give a right to someone else.)

An assignor is a person or group that gives legal rights or legal interests to another person or group. That person or group is called an assignee. In this case, the assignor is the parent who is giving his or her legal right to collect child support to the Department of Social Services, the assignee.

A docket number is a number given to each case. In Family Court, docket numbers begin with a different letter depending on the type of case. The letter is followed by a series of numbers that ends with the two-digit year in which the case was started. Child support cases begin with the letter “F”.

• Investments
• Workers’ compensation
• Disability benefits
• Unemployment insurance
• Social security
• Veterans’ benefits
• Pensions
• Retirement benefits
• Fellowships and stipends
• Annuity payment

These addenda are sections that contain additional information about child support and can be found at the very end of the financial disclosure affidavit. An addendum is one section. Addendum A states the child support percentages. (These are discussed later in this guide.) Addendum B explains that when the combined parental income is over $141,000 a year, the court may not always follow the child support percentages. Addendum C states that in some cases, the noncustodial parent should have to pay only $25 per month. This usually happens when paying child support would cause the noncustodial parent’s income to fall below the poverty level. If you have questions about any of these addenda, please ask a Family Legal Care representative in court or call our Helpline at (212) 343-1122.

No. It is important to answer the question as it is written. The question asks you how many hours you work each week. It also asks how much you earn each week. If you get paid bi-weekly (every two weeks), you will need to divide the total by two to figure out your weekly salary. If you put down your bi-weekly salary, it may result in the judge making the wrong calculations about how much has to be paid in child support.

When making a decision about child support, the support magistrate may take into account the needs of the dependent children living with the non-custodial parent. Dependent is explained in the next question.

A dependent is a person who counts on someone else for their food, clothing, and shelter. A dependent child is a child being financially supported by a parent. A dependent child usually lives in the same home as the person who is supporting them.

Interest and dividend income refers to income from investments. For example, if you or the child’s other parent own stock (an interest in a company corporation) and receive regular payments (called dividends) from the company or corporation you own stock in, you must report those payments as income. Similarly, if you have a savings account from which you receive interest payments, you must include these payments as income on the affidavit.

Yes. The form asks you to write down “money, goods, or services provided by relatives and friends” in this section. That includes a present you may receive every year in cash or as a check from someone.

An asset is any item that is worth something. Here, asset means something worth money. Common examples include cash, stocks and bonds, cars, and other property.

• Child support can be based on how much money the court thinks you can earn. This means that it may not be based on how much you are earning right now. If you have a license related to certain jobs, such as a barber’s license or a license to drive a taxi, this can affect how much the court thinks you can earn and how much child support you can pay.
• If you are ordered to pay child support and you do not follow the order, the Support Collection Unit (SCU) can have your licenses suspended.
• The court can place a value on a license. This means that the court might think that a license is worth a certain amount of money.

Cars and real estate are considered assets (see assets defined above) because they are items that are worth money. If you own a car, you must include it when listing your assets on the document. Listing assets, like cars, helps give the court an idea of the type of lifestyle your child is used to and how much child support you and the child’s other parent can afford to pay.

A deduction lowers the amount of income from which child support will be calculated.

This means child support that you are already paying for another child. This can be through a court order or a written agreement with the other parent of that child.

If you are already paying child support for another child, the court might base your new order on the income that you have left after you pay for the order that came first.

No. The only amount you can include in this category is for child support that you pay because of a court order or a written agreement you have with the other parent of another child. The court takes children who live with you and don’t have a child support order into account in another way. Before the court makes a final decision regarding this child support order, it can consider the needs of these other children.

Maintenance is another word for alimony. It is money paid after a divorce to support an ex-husband or an ex-wife.

Pro-rated means to divide proportionally. In this case, it means both parents will have to pay part of their child’s health costs. How much each one pays will be figured out by comparing the income of both parents. For example, if one parent makes twice as much as the other, that parent may be responsible for twice the amount of the child’s health care costs.

The court may order you to include your child on your health insurance. If the support magistrate orders one parent to include the child on his or her health insurance, the court can ask the other parent to pay some of the cost of coverage.

Either your employer or your human resources director should be able to tell you how much money your employer contributes to your insurance coverage. You might also find the answer in your employee handbook.

A beneficiary is someone who receives a benefit. For example, if a child is listed as a beneficiary under their parent’s life insurance policy, he or she will receive the payments listed in that policy.

No. Your child’s status as your life insurance beneficiary is not one of the factors that courts consider in determining your income and/or whether your contribution should vary from the percentages listed above.

• 1 child – 17% of your adjusted gross income
• 2 children – 25% of your adjusted gross income
• 3 children – 29% of your adjusted gross income
• 4 children – 31% of your adjusted gross income
• 5 children – 35% of your adjusted gross income

Yes. There is space for you to include reasons that you believe the court should vary from the percentage of child support that you can be ordered to pay. In this section, you may include information about another child’s needs if you think it affects the amount you are able to pay.

• The financial resources of each parent and those of the child;
• The physical and emotional health of the child and his/her special needs and capabilities;
• The standard of living the child would have enjoyed if the parents lived together;
• The tax consequences to the parties;
• The non-monetary contributions that the parents will make toward the care and well-being of the child;
• The educational needs of either parent;
• Whether one parent makes a lot more than the other parent;
• The needs of the children of the respondent that are not part of a child support order;
• Extraordinary expenses that the respondent must spend in visiting the child; and
• Any other factors that the court decides are important.

You may not list some expenses as weekly and others as monthly. You must choose to list all of your expenses as either monthly or weekly expenses. You may not list any expenses as yearly expenses. If you choose to list expenses on a monthly basis but you have expenses that you pay weekly you must multiply your weekly expenses by four and list them as monthly expenses.

You can put down both – what you are paying and what you would like to pay. If you put down both, you must write in an explanation of why you have put down two numbers on the financial disclosure affidavit.

Entertainment expenses include money you use for fun, like going to a movie. These are expenses that are not related to your daily living expenses.

Amortization describes the payment of a loan and its interest over a period of time.

Your loan officer is the best source to find out about your mortgage interest and amortization. That information might also be contained in your mortgage statements or the original mortgage documents.

While the court is not required to look at expenses when determining child support, if the court decides to vary the amount of child support each parent is responsible for providing (see section 5, “Variance from the Percentages,” above), the court can consider each parent’s expenses. These expenses can also help the court understand your standard of living.

Yes. When deciding the amount of child support you must pay, the court may consider the educational needs of both parents. Additionally, if the custodial parent has additional child care expenses because of his or her schooling, the other parent can be ordered to help pay for some of those extra expenses.

A liability is money you owe. It is something that you are responsible for paying back, like a loan.

A creditor is a person or company to whom you owe money.

The document you’re filling out is an affidavit. That means it is a formal sworn statement. Under the law, the truth of all the information in an affidavit must be sworn to before an officer authorized to administer oaths, such as a notary public.