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Florida Financial Affidavit Short Form (12.902(b)): Complete Guide

Reviewed by the Amicably document team · Updated July 28, 2026

Form 12.902(b) is the sworn financial statement most Florida divorce filers complete: a line-by-line picture of what you earn, what you spend, what you own, and what you owe. You use the short form when your individual gross income is under $50,000 a year; at or above that, Florida expects the long form instead.

Do not let the word "short" set your expectations. The current version runs several pages and asks for roughly three hundred pieces of information. This guide walks through who actually has to file it, how the two affidavit forms differ, what every section is really asking, and the mistakes that get cases sent back.

What the form is, and why Florida requires it

Florida treats divorce as, among other things, a financial settlement, and it wants that settlement built on disclosed numbers rather than estimates. The financial affidavit is how each spouse puts their numbers on the record: monthly income from every source, payroll deductions, living expenses, assets, and debts, signed as a sworn statement.

The affidavit does two jobs at once. Between spouses, it is the disclosure that lets both of you sign a settlement agreement knowing what the other earns and owns. For the court, it is the record basis for anything financial the judge is asked to approve, from an uncontested property split to a child support figure.

One pleasant surprise: the current form is signed under penalty of perjury rather than before a notary, so you do not need a notarization appointment for this one. It is still a sworn document. A knowingly wrong number is not a typo, it is perjury exposure, and it is also the fastest way to give an otherwise amicable case a reason to become expensive.

Short form or long form: the income test

Florida publishes two versions of the affidavit, and the choice is made per person, not per couple.

Gross means before taxes and deductions, and the test is your income alone, not household income. It is completely normal for one spouse to file the short form while the other files the long form. If you are close to the line, count everything: wages, self-employment draws, bonuses, tips, rental income, and recurring government benefits all belong in gross income.

Who has to file it, route by route

Whether the affidavit must be filed with the court depends on which Florida route your case takes. This is one of the most misunderstood parts of an amicable divorce, so here it is by route.

There is also a privacy option many agreeing couples never hear about. If you both consent, Florida allows a joint waiver of filing: the affidavits are completed and exchanged privately between the two of you first, then the signed waiver notice goes to the court instead of the affidavits themselves, and only then is the settlement agreement signed. That sequence is not decorative. The waiver states, under oath, that it was executed before any settlement was reached, so the order of signatures is the whole point. Done correctly, your figures stay out of the public court file; done in the wrong order, the waiver itself becomes the problem.

County practice genuinely varies here. Some clerk offices publish packets that still demand affidavits in every case, and a few say filing cannot be waived at all, which sits uneasily next to the current statewide rule. This is exactly the kind of local friction where prepared, correctly sequenced paperwork saves you a rejected filing.

How to complete it, section by section

Set aside a quiet hour and gather your documents before you start. The form moves fastest when the numbers are in front of you rather than remembered.

1. Identification and employment. Your name, occupation, and employer. Straightforward, but it must match the rest of your case paperwork exactly.
2. Monthly income, by source. Wages, self-employment, bonuses, commissions, rental income, and the rest, each stated monthly. If you are paid weekly or every two weeks, convert properly rather than multiplying by four: weekly pay times 52, divided by 12. That small piece of arithmetic is one of the most common errors on the whole form.
3. Deductions. Taxes withheld, health insurance premiums, union dues, mandatory retirement. These take you from gross to net monthly income, and the math has to reconcile.
4. Average monthly expenses. Housing, utilities, food, transport, insurance, children's costs, debt payments. Average irregular bills across the year instead of guessing a typical month.
5. Assets. What you own and what it is worth: accounts, vehicles, the home, retirement funds, anything of value. Consistency with your settlement agreement matters; a judge reading both documents should see one coherent picture.
6. Liabilities. What you owe: mortgage balance, car loans, cards, personal and student loans. Then sign under penalty of perjury and date it. In waiver cases the date does real legal work, so sign in the sequence your route requires.

1. Step 1Gather the documents: pay stubs, last year's return, recent account statements, and your monthly bills.
2. Step 2Pick the form by your own gross annual income, not your household's. The two spouses can file different versions.
3. Step 3Fill in the five categories in order: income, deductions, expenses, assets, liabilities. Convert weekly pay properly.
4. Step 4Sign under penalty of perjury, then exchange with your spouse and file if your route requires it.

The mistakes that stall cases

Clerks and judges see these constantly, and each one costs weeks or credibility.

Mixing up gross and net. The form asks for both, in different places. Writing take-home pay where gross belongs makes your numbers internally inconsistent, and inconsistency is what invites questions.

Skipping the expense and asset sections because the form is "short." The short form still requires the full picture: income, deductions, expenses, assets, and liabilities. A page of blanks reads as an incomplete disclosure, not a simple life.

Numbers that contradict the settlement agreement. If the affidavit lists an account the agreement never divides, or the agreement divides an asset the affidavit never mentions, an amicable case suddenly looks less amicable. The two documents are read together.

Signing in the wrong order on the privacy route. Exchange affidavits first, then sign the waiver, then the settlement agreement. The waiver swears to that order, and the dates on each document are the evidence of it.

Using a stale version of the form. Florida revises its family law forms, and clerks notice. Always start from the current official version rather than a years-old copy from a random website.

This is also, candidly, the part of a Florida divorce where a preparation service earns its fee: every number in the right box, both spouses' forms consistent with each other and with the agreement, and the signing sequence handled for whichever route your county actually accepts.

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