Must I do financial disclosures?

One of the things my clients complain about the most is having to do the financial disclosures.  "We don't have anything, why do we have to do this?"  Well, for one thing, the court isn't going to let you move forward with getting a divorce until you do.  We can hate doing it from here until next Tuesday, but it still has to be done.  Kind of like eating your vegetables when you were a kid.  Not your favorite thing, but your mom still made you do it.  Well, the legislature is going to make you do the financial disclosures, so you just have to suck it up and get it over with.  If it's zero, we can say it's zero. If it's your separate property, we can say that, too. 

What's included?  Your Income and Expense Declaration and the Schedule of Assets and Debts, your last two years of tax returns and last couple of pay stubs or, if you're self employed, an up to date Profit and Loss or Schedule C. 

Sometimes, people don't understand what "property" means.  They think it's just real estate.  Nope.  You should be so lucky.  It's the furniture you sleep on, sit on, TV you watch, computer you use, bank accounts, retirement account, even your credit card debts.  I call this the pie baking mode.  Before you can divide the pie, you have to know what's in the pie.  So, collect all those ingredients and just bake that pie already! 

And in case you want to read that statute, here it is: 

In order to provide full and accurate disclosure of all assets and liabilities in which one or both parties may have an interest, each party to a proceeding for dissolution of the marriage or legal separation of the parties shall serve on the other party a preliminary declaration of disclosure under Section 2104 and a final declaration of disclosure under Section 2105, unless service of the final declaration of disclosure is waived pursuant to Section 2105 or 2110, and shall file proof of service of each with the court. (Am Stats 1998, C581)

Family Code §2103

(a) Except by court order for good cause, as provided in Section 2107, in the time period set forth in subdivision (f), each party shall serve on the other party a preliminary declaration of disclosure, executed under penalty of perjury on a form prescribed by the Judicial Council. The commission of perjury on the preliminary declaration of disclosure may be grounds for setting aside the judgment, or any part or parts thereof, pursuant to Chapter 10 (commencing with Section 2120), in addition to any and all other remedies, civil or criminal, that otherwise are available under law for the commission of perjury. The preliminary declaration of disclosure shall include all tax returns filed by the declarant within the two years prior to the date that the party served the declaration.

(b) The preliminary declaration of disclosure shall not be filed with the court, except on court order. However, the parties shall file proof of service of the preliminary declaration of disclosure with the court.

(c) The preliminary declaration of disclosure shall set forth with sufficient particularity, that a person of reasonable and ordinary intelligence can ascertain, all of the following:

(1) The identity of all assets in which the declarant has or may have an interest and all liabilities for which the declarant is or may be liable, regardless of the characterization of the asset or liability as community, quasi-community, or separate.

(2) The declarant's percentage of ownership in each asset and percentage of obligation for each liability where property is not solely owned by one or both of the parties. The preliminary declaration may also set forth the declarant's characterization of each asset or liability.

(d) A declarant may amend his or her preliminary declaration of disclosure without leave of the court. Proof of service of any amendment shall be filed with the court.

(e) Along with the preliminary declaration of disclosure, each party shall provide the other party with a completed income and expense declaration unless an income and expense declaration has already been provided and is current and valid.

(f) The petitioner shall serve the other party with the preliminary declaration of disclosure either concurrently with the petition for dissolution, or within 60 days of filing the petition. The respondent shall serve the other party with the preliminary declaration of disclosure either concurrently with the response to the petition, or within 60 days of filing the response. The time periods specified in this subdivision may be extended by written agreement of the parties or by court order. (Am Stats 2012, C107)

Family Code §2104