What Attorneys Can Learn from a Form 1040

The individual income tax return is often the first—and most reliable—financial document produced in a divorce, yet its most useful information is rarely on page one.

A single misread line on a return can swing a support calculation by thousands of dollars per year. Knowing what a 1040 can and cannot—tell you is the fastest way to strengthen a support case before the first expert is retained.

Join us for a live webinar as we walk through Form 1040 and its key schedules—line-by-line, showing how to identify every income source, spot signs of hidden or underreported income, and translate what the return says into defensible child and spousal support positions.

In this session, we’ll cover:

• How to map every income stream across Form 1040 and Schedules B, D, E and 1—wages, interest, dividends, capital gains, rental and K-1 income, retirement distributions and “other income”
• The signals of hidden income: unreported cash, undisclosed accounts and entities, and inconsistencies between reported income and known assets
• Separating taxable income from support income—which deductions, adjustments and non-cash items (depreciation, carryforwards, deferrals) must be added back or excluded
• A practical framework for testing the marital standard of living against the return, and the red flags that justify further discovery
• Building the discovery request: which W-2s, 1099s, K-1s, brokerage statements, prior-year returns and transcripts to demand
• Where a forensic accountant adds the most value and how to frame the questions that get usable answers