Should I have special concerns if my husband runs a cash business?
Uh-oh. Cash. Red flags!
Allow me to bring the temperature down here. As a CPA, a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® professional, and a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst® professional, I can tell you that the husband-hiding-wads-of-cash scenario happens a lot more in Hollywood than it does in real life.
Still, it does happen.
So how do you know? And what should you do?
Forensic accounting—that is, hiring someone like me to pore over stacks of bank and credit-card statements, sniffing for discrepancies—is expensive. You don’t want to do that unless you need to.
If your husband runs a cash-based business and divorce is looming on the horizon, you need to base your actions on his integrity.
You’ve known him for years. Better than anyone. If you think he’s, say, trying to hide money from you, then he’s likely also been trying to hide it from others, such as the IRS, likely for years.
If you think he’s trying to dodge the feds, then he may well be trying to dodge you, too.
But remember: The stakes here are huge. Messing with the IRS can result in massive penalties, fines, and even jail time. Even when your husband fills out the AFI—Arizona’s required Affidavit of Financial Information as part of the divorce filing—he needs to sign it at the bottom, affirming that all the data he has provided is true… under penalty of perjury.
Most people obey the law. They’re rightly scared of the consequences of breaking it.
But if you suspect foul play, I can help.
Think of this logically. If he, say, claims to have a $50,000 income, yet one day drives home in a $90,000 Mercedes, and never took out a loan, something isn’t adding up. Sure, people can stockpile cash forever, thus leaving no paper trail and never getting caught.
But the reality is that having a lot of cash comes with the temptation to spend it.
So where’s the loan for that new car? How is the mortgage getting paid? These are basic questions I can help answer.
And while forensic accounting is indeed labor-intensive and expensive, you can approach it conservatively. I can, say, go through just one account in detail, scrutinizing a year’s worth of entries. And if it comes up clean, you generally needn’t examine the others. (Of course, the opposite is true!)
If you suspect that your husband is willfully hiding cash in order to avoid paying his fair share in a pending divorce, you need to make sure you have access to as much information—like bank and credit-card accounts and mortgage statements —as possible.
You also need to contact me. ASAP. I’ll help you, and your attorney, to get you a fair and equitable settlement.
New service: Settlement Assurance Review
I now offer a new service—I call it my Settlement Assurance Review—in which, for a nominal fee, I’ll review a proposed settlement for any hidden financial issues or tax implications, before it goes to court or mediation. It’s a great option for giving you (and your attorney) extra peace of mind.
Want to learn more? Contact me today and let’s talk.
