Form 13 is the sworn financial statement Ontario family courts require when a case involves child support or spousal support without any property claim. To complete it, you gather three years of income records, enter your monthly income and expenses line by line, swear the form before a commissioner, then serve and file it on the deadlines tied to your role in the case. Every figure is given under oath, so accuracy matters from the first entry.
Make Sure Form 13 Is the Right Form
Form 13 (Financial Statement — Support Claims) is for cases that deal only with child support, spousal support, or both. If your case also involves dividing property or debts, an equalization claim, or exclusive possession of the matrimonial home, you need Form 13.1 (Financial Statement — Property and Support Claims) instead.1Government of Ontario. Guide to Procedures in Family Court – Steps to Complete, Serve and File Your Financial Disclosure Documents
Married couples dividing assets always use Form 13.1. Common-law partners disputing support only use Form 13. Variation proceedings to change an existing support order usually call for Form 13.
Download the current version from the Ontario Court Forms website in PDF or Word format. The version in effect carries a May 1, 2021 date, effective September 1, 2021.2Ontario Court Services. Form 13 – Financial Statement (Support Claims) Check the site before you start. Courts reject outdated versions.
Documents to Gather Before You Start
Collecting your paperwork first saves time and keeps fields from going blank. You need:
- Notices of Assessment or Reassessment from the Canada Revenue Agency for the past three taxation years. If you no longer have copies, request them from the CRA at 1-800-959-8281.3Government of Ontario. Supporting Financial Documents
- Proof of current income: recent pay stubs, social assistance statements, Employment Insurance records, or pension slips.4Ontario Court of Justice. Family Case: Step-by-Step
- Personal income tax returns for the past three years, including all schedules and attachments.
Self-employed people need more. If you run a sole proprietorship, gather three years of business financial statements along with your personal returns. Partners should also have the partnership agreement and three years of the partnership’s financial statements.3Government of Ontario. Supporting Financial Documents Anyone with an interest in a private corporation needs corporate financial statements, corporate income tax returns, and documentation of the number and type of shares held.5Ontario.ca. Ontario Regulation 69/15 – Family Law Rules
If you have not filed returns for the past three years because you are exempt under the Indian Act, the court will accept alternative proof of income such as bank statements showing deposits, receipts or emails confirming payments, invoices, and records of e-transfers received for work.
Filling in the Form
Part 1: Income
Part 1 asks for a line-by-line breakdown of your monthly income from all sources, before deductions. The categories cover employment income, commissions, tips and bonuses, self-employment income, Employment Insurance, Workers’ Compensation, social assistance (including ODSP), interest and investment income, pension income (including CPP and OAS), spousal support received from a former partner, Child Tax Benefits or tax rebates, and any other sources.
Income that does not fit those lines goes on Schedule A at the back of the form. That includes partnership income, dividends, rental income, capital gains, and RRSP withdrawals. For each source on Schedule A, enter the annual amount and divide by twelve to produce a monthly figure.6Ontario Court Services. Form 13: Financial Statement (Support Claims) – PDF Rental revenue, capital gains from investment sales, and regular RRIF withdrawals are commonly missed here.
Part 2: Expenses
Part 2 covers your monthly spending: housing (rent or mortgage, property taxes, insurance), utilities, food, transportation, health-related costs, personal care, clothing, and other recurring expenses for you and anyone who depends on you. Round to the nearest dollar and use averages for costs that fluctuate, like heating.
Be thorough. Judges compare claimed expenses against reported income, and unexplained gaps draw questions. The form also asks about expenses for children — childcare, school fees, extracurricular activities — and those figures feed directly into the child support calculation. Underreporting hurts your case as much as overreporting.
Swearing the Form Before a Commissioner
Once every section is filled in, the form must be sworn or affirmed in front of a Commissioner for Taking Affidavits. A lawyer, licensed paralegal, notary public, or court clerk qualifies. Bring government-issued photo identification. Do not sign the form in advance; you must sign in the commissioner’s presence.7Niagara Falls. Commissioning of Documents and Affidavits
Signing turns the form into testimony under oath. Deliberately providing false or misleading information constitutes perjury under the Criminal Code of Canada, which carries a maximum sentence of fourteen years’ imprisonment.8Department of Justice Canada. Criminal Code RSC 1985 c C-46 – Section 131 Honest mistakes can be corrected with an updated statement. Intentional concealment of income or assets undermines your credibility on every other issue in the case.
Filing and Serving the Statement
When to File
If you are the applicant, you serve and file your financial statement at the same time as the application containing the support claim. If you are the respondent, you serve and file within the time allowed for your answer: 30 days after being served if you were served in Canada or the United States, or 60 days if served outside those countries.9Ontario.ca. Ontario Regulation 114/99 – Family Law Rules A respondent without a support claim of their own still must file a statement if the applicant is claiming support.
For a motion to change a temporary support order, the moving party files with the notice of motion, and the responding party files no later than two days before the motion date.9Ontario.ca. Ontario Regulation 114/99 – Family Law Rules
How to File
In the Toronto region, you can file electronically through the Ontario Courts Public Portal using an Ontario.ca Login account.10Ontario Courts Public Portal. Ontario Courts Public Portal Outside Toronto, check with your local courthouse. Many still require paper filing at the clerk’s counter.
Serving the Other Party
After filing, serve the statement on the other party or their lawyer. The Family Law Rules allow mail, same- or next-day courier, fax (if the total pages do not exceed 20), or email.9Ontario.ca. Ontario Regulation 114/99 – Family Law Rules The person who delivered the documents then completes Form 6B (Affidavit of Service) recording the date, time, and method. File the completed Form 6B with the court as proof.
Keeping Your Statement Current
Filing once is not the end of the obligation. Before any case conference, settlement conference, motion, or trial, you must update your statement if it is more than 30 days old. You have three options:11Ontario.ca. Ontario Regulation 114/99 – Family Law Rules
- If nothing has changed, serve and file a short affidavit confirming the information in your last statement is still true.
- If changes are minor, serve and file an affidavit describing the specific changes.
- If changes are major, serve and file an entirely new financial statement.
Deadlines are tight. The party who requested the conference or brought the motion serves and files at least seven days before the date. The other party has until four days before.11Ontario.ca. Ontario Regulation 114/99 – Family Law Rules For trials, the applicant files seven days ahead and the respondent four days ahead.
You also have a standing duty to correct any document you discover is wrong, incomplete, or out of date, as soon as you discover the problem, not at the next hearing.11Ontario.ca. Ontario Regulation 114/99 – Family Law Rules
What Happens If You Don’t Comply
Family court judges have wide discretion when a party fails to disclose properly, and consequences escalate quickly. The starting point is a costs order: you pay the other side’s legal expenses caused by your failure. From there, the court can:9Ontario.ca. Ontario Regulation 114/99 – Family Law Rules
- Strike your pleadings. Your application, answer, or motion is removed from the record. You lose the right to participate, you stop receiving notice of future steps, and the case can proceed without you, including an uncontested trial date.
- Bar your evidence. Any document you were required to provide but did not may be excluded entirely.
- Order a fine or penalty payable to the other party or into court.
- Find you in contempt under Rule 31 in serious cases.
In enforcement proceedings where a support order is already in default and you ignore a court order to file a financial statement, the consequences reach up to 40 days of imprisonment, served continuously or on an intermittent schedule.9Ontario.ca. Ontario Regulation 114/99 – Family Law Rules Treating financial disclosure casually is one of the fastest ways to lose control of your case.