How to Fill Out Florida Family Law Form 12.902(c): Financial Affidavit (Long Form)

Florida Family Law Form 12.902(c), the Long Form Financial Affidavit, is required in any divorce, child support, alimony, or property division case where your individual gross annual income is $50,000 or more. You complete it by converting every income source, deduction, expense, asset, and debt into a monthly figure, signing the form under oath before a notary or deputy clerk, and filing it through the Florida Courts E-Filing Portal. Mandatory disclosure under Rule 12.285 must reach the other side within 45 days of the respondent being served with the initial petition.¹

Who Files the Long Form

Any party in a Florida family law case who asks the court for financial relief must file a financial affidavit. The version depends on your individual gross annual income, meaning the total before taxes, health insurance, retirement contributions, or any other deduction. At $50,000 or more, you file the Long Form, 12.902(c). Below $50,000, you file the Short Form, 12.902(b).² Petitioner or respondent, the threshold works the same way.

Three situations skip the affidavit entirely:

A simplified dissolution under Rule 12.105 where both parties waive financial affidavits in writing.
A case with no minor children, no support issues, and a written settlement agreement that resolves every financial question.
A case where the court has no jurisdiction over financial matters.

If your income sits near $50,000, use the Long Form. A Short Form from someone who earned over the threshold during any part of the relevant period can be rejected, which costs you time and hands the other side a reason to move to compel.

Documents to Gather Before You Start

Florida Rule 12.285 lists exactly what you must produce along with the affidavit. Pulling these first makes the form much easier to complete, because most of the numbers come straight from these records. A standard initial proceeding calls for:³

All federal and state income tax returns, gift tax returns, and intangible personal property tax returns for the past three years.
W-2s, 1099s, and K-1s for the most recent year, especially if that year’s return has not been prepared.
Pay stubs covering the three months before you serve the affidavit.
A written statement identifying the amount and source of any income from the last three months not reflected on those pay stubs.
Loan applications and financial statements prepared or used in the past twelve months.
All deeds from the last three years, promissory notes from the last twelve months, and current leases.
Three months of checking account statements and twelve months of statements for savings accounts, money market funds, and certificates of deposit.
Twelve months of brokerage statements for any account either party held an interest in.
The most recent statement for every profit-sharing, retirement, deferred compensation, or pension plan, plus the summary plan description.
Declarations pages, the most recent periodic statement, and certificates for life insurance on either spouse, along with current health and dental insurance cards.
Corporate, partnership, and trust tax returns for the last three years for any entity in which you own 30 percent or more.

For a temporary financial relief hearing the list shrinks to the affidavit, one year of tax returns, W-2s or 1099s for the most recent year, and three months of pay stubs.³ If emergency relief is coming, start with those four and build the rest in parallel.

Filling Out the Form

Download the form from the Florida Courts website under family law forms. Every dollar figure must be stated as a monthly amount, even if you are paid weekly, biweekly, or on an irregular schedule. Conversion mistakes are among the fastest ways to draw a challenge.

Monthly Gross Income

Gross income covers everything you receive before deductions: base wages, overtime, bonuses, commissions, rental income, dividends, Social Security, pension payments, and any other source. If you are self-employed or receive business income, report gross receipts minus ordinary and necessary business expenses, with an attached sheet showing the math.

Convert pay frequency to monthly using the formulas the form specifies:²

Weekly pay: multiply by 52, then divide by 12.
Biweekly pay: multiply by 26, then divide by 12.
Semimonthly pay: multiply by 2.

Dividing weekly pay by 4 is the classic error. It understates your income by roughly two weeks per year, and opposing counsel will catch it.

Payroll Deductions

Itemize every deduction that appears on your pay stub. The form has spaces for federal and state income tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare), additional Medicare tax where it applies, health insurance premiums, mandatory union dues, and court-ordered support for other children.⁴

Voluntary items such as 401(k) contributions, charitable giving through payroll, and personal loan repayments do not belong in the deductions section for child support purposes. Put those in monthly expenses instead. The court calculates support based on income net of mandatory deductions only, and padding this section with voluntary items reads as an attempt to shrink your available income.

Monthly Expenses

The form walks through household expenses by category: housing (mortgage or rent, property taxes, insurance, maintenance), utilities, food, transportation, clothing, medical, child-related costs, and miscellaneous items like grooming, entertainment, and subscriptions. Enter what you actually spend now, not what you spent during the marriage or what you project going forward. If a figure is challenged, you should be able to pull a bank statement or receipt that supports it.

Assets and Liabilities

For assets, list the current fair market value of every item: real estate, vehicles, bank accounts, retirement accounts, stocks, personal property, and business interests. Real estate takes a recent appraisal or comparative market analysis. Retirement and brokerage balances come from the most recent statement. Household goods and personal items are valued at what a willing buyer would pay a willing seller today, not the original purchase price. A $2,000 couch bought five years ago might be worth $300 now.

For each liability, give the creditor’s name, the total balance, and the monthly payment. That includes mortgages, car loans, student loans, credit cards, personal loans, and tax debt owed to the IRS or state. Flag any debt that is jointly held with your spouse so the court can sort shared obligations from individual ones.

Protecting Confidential Information

A financial affidavit carries Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, and detailed income data. Florida Rule of General Practice and Judicial Administration 2.420 requires a Notice of Confidential Information Within Court Filing whenever a document contains information that should be shielded from public view.⁵ The notice tells the clerk where the sensitive data appears so public access to those portions can be restricted.

If a party’s home address is confidential, it cannot appear in the certificate of service; service goes through the State Attorney or by court-directed service under Rule 2.420(k). Skip the notice and your Social Security number and account details can land in a publicly searchable court record, so treat this as a required step rather than an optional one.

Signing Before a Notary

The completed affidavit must be signed under oath in the physical presence of a notary public or a deputy clerk of the circuit court. Signing it at home and bringing it in later does not work; the notary must witness your signature and verify your identity with a government-issued photo ID. A Florida notary may charge up to $10 per notarial act, or up to $25 for remote online notarization.

Signing turns the form into sworn testimony. Perjury in an official proceeding is a third-degree felony under Florida law.⁶⁷⁸ Beyond the criminal exposure, a finding that you lied on the affidavit damages your credibility on every other issue the judge has to decide.

Filing and the 45-Day Deadline

File the notarized original with the Clerk of the Circuit Court in the county where your case is pending. Attorneys must submit through the Florida Courts E-Filing Portal. Self-represented parties may use the portal; some circuits strongly encourage or effectively require it, so check your local circuit’s rules.

Rule 12.285 requires that all mandatory disclosure, including the affidavit, be served on the other party within 45 days of the initial petition being served on the respondent.¹ The clock runs from the date of service on the respondent, not from the date you file a response. Petitioner and respondent share the same 45-day window from that single starting date. Miss it and the other side can ask the court for sanctions, which may include striking your pleadings, awarding attorney fees, or entering findings against your financial position.

What Happens If You Leave Things Out

Civil consequences for hiding assets or underreporting income can reshape the case. A court that finds concealed assets can award up to 100 percent of the hidden property to the other spouse, order you to pay the other side’s attorney fees and forensic accounting costs, and impose additional monetary sanctions.

If hidden assets surface after the divorce is final, the other party can move to reopen the case on fraud grounds. Courts take those motions seriously where there is evidence of intentional concealment. Full disclosure from the start, even of unflattering details, is almost always the better strategy. The form exists so the court can divide things fairly, and attempts to game it tend to backfire.

1
Florida Courts. Florida Family Law Rules of Procedure Rule 12.285 – Mandatory Disclosure
2
Florida Courts. Florida Family Law Rules of Procedure Form 12.902(c) – Family Law Financial Affidavit (Long Form)
3
Florida Courts. Florida Family Law Rule of Procedure 12.285 – Mandatory Disclosure
4
Internal Revenue Service. Social Security and Medicare Withholding Rates
5
Thirteenth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida. Notice of Confidential Information Within Court Filing
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Florida Statutes. Florida Code 837.02 – Perjury in Official Proceedings
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Florida Senate. Florida Code 775.082 – Penalties; Applicability of Sentencing Structures; Mandatory Minimum Sentences
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Florida Statutes. Florida Code 775.083 – Fines