Ex-husband Owner of Business

[winnie]

Since our divorce my ex-husband has since gained ownership/shares of his parents business. Is there an entitlement to his profits of this business, does this become part of his income (T-4) and therefore open to child support guidelines? If so then how do I proceed, since he is refusing to disclose any information regarding the business? I believe the transfer took place in 2003.

[standing on the sidelines]

It all depends if he is taking a salary or how he is getting paid. You believe the transfer took place in 2003 but are not really sure so you have to find a way to have concrete proof before you go ahead with anything. It would be bad for you if your information was wrong.

I am thinking that he has to be a registered owner on the business somewhere like the bank etc. It is just getting that information that may be hard. You may have to take it to court and get them to order him to disclose his updated financials.

My big thing is that if it goes one way it should go the other. If you want money when he is making more then you should be willing to take a cut when he (the business) is losing money. Is the business a viable one that seems to consistently make money?? If not then maybe rocking the boat is not such a good thing to do because when he starts to lose money he probably will drag you to court to get the amount cut and you may end up worse off. Just my two cents.

[Mess]

Businesses and their owners have to be registered with the government, in Ontario I think it's still the Ministry of Consumer and Commercial Relations, but it's a few years since I had my business. You can do a title search, there are paralegals that specialize in title searches, this is not expensive and it is often done when someone wants to register a business like "Steve's Burgers" to make sure there isn't another business with the same name. Again, it's been a few years but I believe the search should cost less than $100.

Having a "share" of the business doesn't mean necessarily that he is making income off of it. Most small family businesses don't turn an actual profit, mom and pop pay themselves a salary, and the business itself runs at basically a break-even. They may have transfered a share to him but he isn't working or taking a salary, and it is simply ownership, which may be set up to make it easier to inherit the business or transfer it in full later when they retire. There are many possibilities and you need proof that he is actually taking income from the business.

The business needs to file it's own tax return and this will show any payments as salary and any net profit. Once you establish that he actually owns part of it, then the tax info is what you should request access to. There's not much more you can do unless you want to make some huge fraud allegation and demand a full scale audit.