How to Fill Out and File a Mandatory Disclosure Form for Divorce

In a Florida divorce, mandatory disclosure requires you and your spouse to exchange a defined package of financial documents within 45 days after the initial petition is served on the respondent. The rule is Florida Family Law Rules of Procedure 12.285, and it applies to dissolutions of marriage and other family law proceedings that seek financial relief. You send the documents directly to the other party. Only two items go to the clerk: your financial affidavit and a Certificate of Compliance (Form 12.932) confirming you produced everything the rule requires.¹

What You Have to Produce

For any initial or supplemental proceeding seeking permanent financial relief, Rule 12.285 requires each party to give the other:

A completed financial affidavit — Form 12.902(b) if your gross annual income is under $50,000, Form 12.902(c) if it is $50,000 or more. This is also the one document that gets filed with the court.
All federal and state income tax returns, gift tax returns, and intangible personal property tax returns filed by you or on your behalf for the past three years.
Your W-2s, 1099s, and K-1s for the most recent tax year, if that year’s return has not yet been prepared.
Pay stubs or other evidence of earned income for the three months before you serve your affidavit.
A written statement identifying every other source and amount of income received during those same three months, if the income does not appear on your pay stubs.
Any loan application or personal financial statement you prepared or used in the past 12 months, for any purpose.
All deeds from the last three years, all promissory notes from the last 12 months, and any current leases in which you hold an interest.
Checking account statements for the last three months, and statements for all other accounts (savings, money market, CDs) for the last 12 months — whether the account is open or closed and whether held individually, jointly, or in trust.
Brokerage account statements for the last 12 months for any account in which either party has an interest.
The most recent statement and summary plan description for every profit-sharing, retirement, deferred-compensation, or pension plan you participate in, including IRAs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s, SEPs, and Keogh plans.
The declarations page, most recent periodic statement, and certificate for every policy insuring your life or your spouse’s life.
Copies of your health and dental insurance cards.
Three years of tax returns for any corporation, partnership, or trust in which you own a 30-percent-or-greater interest.¹

That last item catches self-employed parties off guard. If you own at least 30 percent of a business entity, you owe three years of that entity’s returns on top of your personal returns.

If you cannot locate your federal returns, Rule 12.285 lets you substitute an IRS transcript for the federal return at temporary hearings. You request a transcript on IRS Form 4506-T; transcripts are free and typically arrive within about 10 business days.²³

Filling Out the Financial Affidavit

The financial affidavit is the centerpiece of the package and the only piece filed with the court. Use Form 12.902(b), the short form, if your gross annual income is under $50,000. Use Form 12.902(c), the long form, if it is $50,000 or more. Both are available on the Florida Courts website.⁴

Every number on the form must be expressed as a monthly amount. The form provides conversion formulas for other pay cycles. For hourly wages, multiply your hourly rate by weekly hours, multiply by 52, and divide by 12. For biweekly pay, multiply by 26 and divide by 12. Semi-monthly paychecks are multiplied by two.⁵

On the income side, report every recurring source: salary, wages, bonuses, commissions, tips, self-employment income (gross receipts minus ordinary business expenses), disability, Social Security, unemployment, pension payments, rental income (net of ordinary expenses), alimony from a prior case, interest, and dividends. Then list your monthly deductions: federal, state, and local income taxes, FICA or self-employment tax, Medicare, mandatory union dues, mandatory retirement contributions, health and dental insurance premiums (excluding the portion covering minor children of this relationship), and any court-ordered child support or alimony you pay in another case. Gross minus deductions gives you the net monthly income the court uses for support calculations.

The expense section itemizes your actual monthly costs across housing, utilities, food, clothing, medical and dental, transportation, child-related expenses, insurance, and installment payments. Use real numbers. Judges and opposing counsel will compare these figures against the bank and account statements you produce, and inconsistencies show up quickly.

You sign under penalties of perjury. False statements carry the same consequences as lying under oath. The current version of Form 12.902(c) uses a self-declaration format and does not require a notary or witness.⁴

Serving the Package and Filing the Certificate of Compliance

You have 45 days from the date the initial petition is served on the respondent to deliver the complete package to the other party. If a supplemental petition for modification is filed later, the 45-day clock starts again for both sides.¹

Send the documents directly to the other party by mail or hand delivery. Do not file them with the clerk. The only items that go into the court file are your financial affidavit and Form 12.932, the Certificate of Compliance with Mandatory Disclosure. The certificate lists each category of document you produced and confirms you have met the rule’s requirements. No other disclosure documents go into the court file unless a judge specifically orders it.⁶

This structure keeps account numbers and sensitive details out of the public court file. Anything that does get filed is governed by Florida Rule of Judicial Administration 2.425, which requires filers to redact Social Security numbers, financial account numbers, and dates of birth down to partial information.⁶ If you are a victim of domestic violence, stalking, or similar abuse and need to keep your address confidential, file Form 12.980(h), Request for Confidential Filing of Address, instead of listing your address on the affidavit.⁵

Filing the certificate does not end your obligations. You have a continuing duty to promptly provide any new information or documents that change your financial picture for as long as the case is open.

If a Temporary Hearing Is Set Inside the 45 Days

When a hearing on temporary financial relief, such as temporary alimony or temporary child support, is scheduled before your full disclosure deadline, a reduced set of documents applies. The party requesting temporary relief serves this shorter list with the notice of hearing, and the responding party serves the same list in return:³

The 12.902(b) or 12.902(c) financial affidavit, based on income.
Tax returns for the past year only. An IRS transcript may substitute for the federal return.
W-2s, 1099s, and K-1s for the most recent year, if that year’s return has not yet been prepared.
Three months of pay stubs or other earned-income evidence.

The full disclosure package is still due within the original 45-day window (or any extension the court grants or the parties agree to). The shorter list just gives the judge enough information to make an interim ruling.

When Mandatory Disclosure Does Not Apply

Rule 12.285 exempts several proceedings entirely: simplified dissolutions, enforcement actions, contempt proceedings, injunctions for domestic or repeat violence, and uncontested dissolutions where the respondent was served by publication and never filed an answer.¹

Simplified dissolution is the most common exemption. To qualify, all of the following must be true: at least one spouse has lived in Florida for six months, both agree the marriage cannot be saved, neither is seeking alimony, there are no minor or dependent children and the wife is not pregnant, both have agreed on how to divide all assets and debts, both are willing to give up the right to trial and appeal, both have signed the petition, and both are willing to appear together at the final hearing. If any one condition fails, you must file a regular dissolution and comply with full disclosure.⁷

Outside those exemptions, parties can agree in writing to modify or waive most disclosure items. Two cannot be waived by agreement: the financial affidavit and the child support guidelines worksheet. Everything else on the list can be modified by written agreement of the parties or by court order.¹

What Happens If You Miss the Deadline or Leave Things Out

Under Rule 12.285, any document served on the opposing party fewer than 24 hours before a hearing will not be admitted into evidence at that hearing unless the court finds good cause for the delay. The court can also impose any sanction available under Rule 12.380: striking pleadings, prohibiting a party from introducing evidence, entering a default judgment, or holding the noncompliant party in contempt.¹

Sanctions can fall on the attorney rather than the party, and the court must impose sanctions for frivolous or meritless objections to disclosure. Fee-shifting is one of the most common outcomes: when one spouse forces the other to litigate over withheld documents, the noncompliant spouse often ends up paying the other side’s attorney’s fees and producing the documents anyway.

1
Florida Courts. Florida Family Law Rules of Procedure Rule 12.285 – Mandatory Disclosure
2
Internal Revenue Service. Request for Transcript of Tax Return
3
Florida Courts. Florida Family Law Rules of Procedure Rule 12.285 – Mandatory Disclosure
4
Florida Courts. Florida Family Law Rules of Procedure Form 12.902(c) – Family Law Financial Affidavit (Long Form)
5
Florida Courts. Florida Family Law Rules of Procedure Form 12.902(b) – Family Law Financial Affidavit (Short Form)
6
Florida Courts. Instructions for Florida Family Law Rules of Procedure Form 12.932 – Certificate of Compliance with Mandatory Disclosure
7
Florida Courts. Instructions for Florida Family Law Rules of Procedure – Simplified Dissolution of Marriage