If you’re like most families, after the break-up, the children are living with one of you and the other person probably has most of the income.
Now comes the months, if not years of fighting about his income for support purposes. The rule in Ontario has been clear for a long time: full and frank disclosure. The onus is upon the payor not the payee.
This means that if you’re the guy with the money and she’s the one with the children, it doesn’t matter that she didn’t specifically ask you about the cash in the safe, the onus is upon you to provide financial disclosure.
What does that mean in ordinary language? It means that if you don’t prove that you didn’t take the money from the safe the court will deem that you did take the money from the safe.
So many family disputes get stalled at this amateurish maneuver: (‘I’m not telling her nothing’). The thing that the parties don’t realize until it’s too late is that the court has the power to DEEM the money IN your possession if you don’t PROVE otherwise so your ‘I’m not tellin’!’ routine will be a problem.
Particularly if you are driving a Ferrari to court to tell the family judge that you got no income.
Benzeroual v Issa and Faraq 2017 ONSC 3655
