Finding Hidden Accounts With a Tax Return

Tax returns are scary. The forms are ugly and complicated, and the rules are intimidating. If you have never filed your family's taxes or had a reason to take a good look at your tax returns, you may be reviewing them for the very first time during your divorce.

This probably feels challenging and overwhelming, but I want to help demystify taxes for you.  There is some really great information that you can find in a tax return if you know where to look. I'm going to show you how to find bank accounts and investments your husband may have hidden from you.... and you can find these simply by looking at a tax return.

I hope that you already have your tax returns in hand. But if you don't, please know that you can get your tax returns directly from the IRS. You don't need your husband to give you the tax returns, and you don't need his permission to get them from the IRS. If your name is on the tax return, you have a right to access the information. (I show you exactly how to get them from the IRS in the Divorce Money Guide.)

Now you're going to dig in and find out if the tax return has evidence of a bank or investment account that you never knew about before. It's easy!

Your personal tax return is filed on Form 1040. Page 1 of that tax return has tons of information. Look for the lines that say :

• Tax-exempt interest
• Taxable interest
• Qualified dividends
• Ordinary dividends

If there are numbers on any of these lines, then you should check if there is a Schedule B in your tax return. Schedule B is where the best information will be found.  This schedule gives you details of the interest and dividends. Usually, it will tell you the names of the banks or investment companies that paid the interest or dividends.

Pay attention to the names of the banks and companies that are listed on Schedule B. Do you recognize them? You or your spouse have accounts at these banks or investment companies. If you’ve never heard of one or some of them before, that means there are accounts (with money in them!) that you didn’t know about.

If you do not recognize a name of an institution or company, this is your big red flag that your spouse is hiding assets and money from you. And you now have proof to bring to your attorney to go after YOUR money. If you let your attorney know that you found these accounts, he or she can send a subpoena to the company or companies to get all the records for the accounts.

It doesn't seem like it could possibly be that easy to find secret accounts, could it? But it is. There are always clues to these accounts, and people who are hiding money from their spouses don't realize that these clues exist. Let me show you more easy ways to find hidden money with the Divorce Money Guide.