“What’s Mine is Yours.” These words should be taken quite literally when it comes to marriage in the state of Texas. Texas is a community property state, which means that any income or property (for the most part) that a spouse acquires during the marriage is labelled as “community property.” This means that in the case of a divorce, each spouse gets approximately half of the community property in a just and right division administered by the divorce court.
That secret account you’ve been putting your paycheck into while married? Community Property. That boat you bought with money from that secret account? You’ve got it- Community Property. Just because someone deposits his or her paycheck into a separate account or funnels it into a new purchase of property doesn’t mean that the money is now separate property- Texas divorce courts are a little smarter than that. The classification of the money is still “income” received “during the marriage,” so any effort you’ve been putting forth to hide your paychecks or accounts should be re-directed to figuring out how to calm down your now angry ex-spouse after he or she finds out that the cliché “share and share alike” didn’t seem to apply to you.
