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Am I obligated to provide exwife with my past tax filings?

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txbirdie

Junior Member
My exwife wants to confirm my income. I have provided to her with several copies of my recent pay stubs for her refernece, but those were not good enough for her. Now she's asking for me to provide 5 years worth of copies of my tax returns to make sure that I did not short change the child support liability amounts as well as to make sure she's collecting enough now from me. I do not have other income that's not on my pay stubs and feel that if I provide her with my tax returns it's invasion of privacy when she has to provide me nothing in return that she's adequately taking care of my kids with the child support that I provide to her.
 


Antigone*

Senior Member
My exwife wants to confirm my income. I have provided to her with several copies of my recent pay stubs for her refernece, but those were not good enough for her. Now she's asking for me to provide 5 years worth of copies of my tax returns to make sure that I did not short change the child support liability amounts as well as to make sure she's collecting enough now from me. I do not have other income that's not on my pay stubs and feel that if I provide her with my tax returns it's invasion of privacy when she has to provide me nothing in return that she's adequately taking care of my kids with the child support that I provide to her.
Don't give her anything else unless you are court ordered to do so.
 

mistoffolees

Senior Member
Don't give her anything else unless you are court ordered to do so.
I agree. However, the court is usually fairly lenient in issuing subpoenas for financial information, so fighting it might be a losing battle.

Since you only have one job, what about giving her your W2 from last year? The recent pay stub should also have YTD figures, for this year. That would be less intrusive than giving her your tax return.

I agree that you don't have to do it, but if there's no real concern, sometimes compliance can prevent an expensive battle.
 

isingm

Junior Member
I agree, don't give her anything unless it is required and you are provided with the proper documentation that says so.
 

CourtClerk

Senior Member
If the tax returns don't show anything more than are on your paystubs, then what's there to hide?

She was married to you, so I'll assume she already has your ssn.
You don't have anything more than you've already told her you have.

Which means... you have on there you don't want her to see.
 

HomeGuru

Senior Member
If the tax returns don't show anything more than are on your paystubs, then what's there to hide?

She was married to you, so I'll assume she already has your ssn.
You don't have anything more than you've already told her you have.

Which means... you have on there you don't want her to see.
**A: I agree**************......
 

sometwo

Senior Member
I say don't give her anything that your not court ordered.

She's your ex and not entitled to anything any longer unless the court order says otherwise. I would tell her its none of her business. If it were me

It doesn't matter if she knows the info on there or whether there's anything to hide. To me it would be the whole point of the matter that it's none of her business.

Now if child support services wants something I would work with them but not the ex. Just my opinion.
 

txbirdie

Junior Member
Thanks

My tax returns has my current wife's info on it and that's why I don't want to provide it to the exwife. I like the idea of providing the W2. Thanks again for all of the suggestions.
 

garrula lingua

Senior Member
OP, States have different rules on this.

I don't believe you identified your STATE.

As an example, in CA, you are required to provide income info without a filing.
In Texas (? per your name), you are not required to share info prior to filing.

It's always nice to get along, but you should know your legal obligations as opposed to your voluntary efforts.

Your legal obligations will differ, according to the STATE which rendered the order.

Good luck.
 
Although it's in the California family law statutes that each party is to exchange their tax returns, one party sometimes doesn't do it because they have income to hide. Then it becomes a big hassle to get the the withholding party to comply.

Then you also have the scenario that the party with income to hide will create a fake tax return using TurboTax to show only W-2 income.

A tax return can have the new spouse's SSN and income blacked out but asking for 5 years back tax returns is ridiculous unless fraud (hiding income) is being asserted.

So unless Texas law requires the exchange of tax returns, I wouldn't do it.
 

stealth2

Under the Radar Member
A court can - and likely will - order you to provide a redacted copy of your tax return. Five years? Maybe not. But you never know.
 

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