• videocam On-Demand Webinar
  • signal_cellular_alt Intermediate
  • card_travel Family Law
  • schedule 90 minutes

Divorce Cases: Uncovering Critical Information in Tax Returns and Financial Statements

Discovery Strategies, Analyzing Tax Returns and Financial Documents, Using Financial Experts

About the Course

Introduction

This CLE course will provide family law counsel with strategies to utilize tax returns and financial statements during a divorce case. The panel will focus on appropriate discovery methods to obtain information, explain how to get the most out of your analysis of tax returns and financial documents, and outline the best approaches for using financial experts.

Description

Tax returns and financial statements contain valuable information to develop financial strategies during a divorce case. Family law counsel must identify and leverage critical financial details in financial documents and personal and business tax return schedules.

Specific line items can provide counsel with the basis for drafting discovery requests to obtain critical information regarding the marital estate's financial resources. This information is also necessary to frame financial strategies and potential resolution strategies.

Counsel may need to work with financial professionals or forensic accountants to review business financials, including balance sheets, income statements, statements of cash flows, general ledgers, and accountant work papers. Counsel should be well versed in ways to maximize the use of financial experts in the case.

Listen as our panel discusses the complexities of discovering critical information through analyzing tax returns and financial documents and identifies best practices for using accountants and other financial professionals.

Presented By

Mark S. Gottlieb, CPA/ABV/CFF, ASA, CVA, CBA, MST
Head of Business Valuation, Forensic Accounting & Litigation Support Practice
Mark S. Gottlieb, CPA, PC

Mr. Gottlieb leads his team of highly qualified professionals in conducting forensic accounting investigations, independent business and professional practice valuations, calculations of enhanced earnings capacity relating to professional licenses and degrees, and a continuum of financial and economic analyses.

Reuben Gottlieb, Esq., CPA, MS-Forensic Accounting
Director of Forensic and Litigation Support Services
MSG Accountants Consultants & Business Valuators

Mr. Gottlieb is the Director of Forensic and Litigation Support Services at MSG, where he oversees forensic accounting investigations, business valuations, and economic damages analyses in complex commercial and matrimonial disputes. Mr. Gottlieb brings an unusual combination of credentials to this work: he is both a licensed attorney and a certified public accountant, which gives him a fluency in both the financial analysis and the litigation process that most forensic consultants simply do not have. Mr. Gottlieb's work covers the full scope of the firm’s litigation support practice. He conducts and supervises business valuations of closely held companies, prepares economic damages calculations in commercial disputes, and leads forensic investigations involving allegations of fraud, asset dissipation, and financial misreporting. Mr. Gottlieb also plays a central role in expert report preparation, deposition and trial support, and the development of rebuttal analyses targeting opposing experts’ methodologies and conclusions. He has provided expert testimony and lectures regularly on financial and tax matters in divorce litigation, presenting to organizations including the American Bar Association, BARBRI, the Suffolk County Bar Association, and Strafford Webinars.

Johnathon E. Miles
Principal
Brisbane Consulting Group, LLC

Mr. Miles is a manager responsible for valuation, forensic accounting, and litigation support services for Brisbane Consulting Group, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lumsden McCormick. He has prior public accounting experience working in the tax department of a Syracuse CPA firm and has commercial sales experience working for an automotive firm for more than five years. 

Credit Information
  • This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.


  • Live Online


    On Demand

Date + Time

  • event

    Tuesday, October 24, 2023

  • schedule

    1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT

  1. Income tax returns
    1. 1040
    2. Schedules A, B, C, D, and E
    3. The 1120S for an S corporation
    4. 1065 for partnership income
    5. W-2
    6. K-1s
  2. Financial statements
  3. Methods to obtain discovery
  4. Ways to use accountants and other financial experts

The panel will review these and other key issues:

  • When looking at financial documents to determine parties' income and assets, what are the critical data points for divorce counsel?
  • What items in tax returns and financial statements provide clues to income, assets, and debts?
  • What are best practices for leveraging financial experts and forensic accountants during the divorce action?