The age old quote, “Money is the root of all evil,” unfortunately holds true when it comes to greedy spouses in the midst of a divorce. A recent article in Bloomberg, focuses on such spouses and the extremes they go to in order to rake in the dough.
Matters that couples tend to fight over include the division of assets, child support, child custody, spousal support, visitation rights etc. Yet some people will not only hide money right after the fact that getting a divorce has been decided upon, but even before there are troubles in paradise.
While this is typically a very hard thing to do if you work for a company that is not yours, due to set salary and taxes automatically being taken out every cheque, it is still possible. Also those who own their own business outright can be hiding their true income from not only their spouse but also from the Government. This not only reduces how much financial support the dependant spouse receives, but can also cause more trouble for both parties if the Government finds out and gets involved.
Hiding money from the IRS is tax evasion, and although there are laws that protect the innocent spouse, it is not foolproof. This is due to the fact that it can argued that the innocent spouse would have had to have known that money was being hidden or falsely reported due to red flags such as luxury items or outrageous mortgages when you’re supposedly living off a middle class income.
So if you see the writing on the wall, be smart enough to conduct your own investigation of all income and assets before going through with a divorce. This is to make sure that you are receiving the proper amount of child/ spousal support that you deserve and to make sure that you don’t get in trouble with the IRS if they find out and act upon it.
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