One of the most common and complicated issues in divorce is determining a spouse’s true income.

Income determinations and classification issues require expertise and you need an experienced divorce financial professional on your team to work through all the financial angles of your settlement.

A forensic accountant is trained to examine personal and business financial records with an eye not only for what they show, but for what is being withheld. In other words, forensic accountants can “sense problems”.

Many times, a spouse will stall before handing over financial documents for the other divorce team to review, driving up legal bills before they even get a look. This serves to make things disordered, confusing, time-consuming and even more costly.

When you finally do get to examine the financial disclosures, you may have the feeling they’ve been manipulated in a way that hides the true financial situation. Even if you can’t tell precisely what is missing, you might suspect your spouse is understating income, or hiding assets to keep them from being divided in your settlement.

Underhanded maneuvers like these can be difficult to prove in court –especially if your spouse owns a business with a significant part of its income in cash or assets have been hidden for many years.

A forensic accountant is trained to examine personal and business financial records with an eye not only for what they show, but for what is being withheld.

A forensic accountant can uncover unethical practices, such as:

        creating fake debt

        padding payroll

        underreporting income

        overpaying creditors

        transferring assets to dummy corporations

        purchasing expensive items with secret cash

While hiring a forensic accountant may seem excessive and you may feel reluctant to add yet another professional to your divorce team, keep in mind that the efforts of a forensic accountant can pay off immeasurably by assuring the assets, debts and income are fairly reported. Contact Jones and Company CPAs P.A. for more information on our forensic accounting services.