Form 4 or Form F8: which financial statement do you need?

Step one

Which court is your case in?

Documents already filed in a family case name the court and the registry, usually at the top of the first page, next to the court file number. If nothing has been filed, no proceeding has been started yet — you can still prepare a financial statement, but the court has not yet been fixed.

The two courts overlap more than people expect, and differ in one decisive way:

• Both courtscan make orders about child support, spousal support, parenting arrangements and guardianship.
• Supreme Court onlycan grant a divorce, and can divide family property and family debt under Part 5 of the Family Law Act. A proceeding seeking that relief is in the Supreme Court, and so uses Form F8.

The Provincial Court generally does not decide Part 5 property claims — orders about companion animals are a limited statutory exception. Form 4 still contains an assets-and-debts section, because that information can matter to orders the Provincial Court does make.

Side by side

The two forms compared.

The difference most people miss

Form F8 is filed in parts — and the parts stack.

Both forms have six parts, and neither is meant to be completed end to end by everybody. But the Supreme Court rule is unusually specific: Rule 5-1 assigns particular parts to particular claims, and where more than one subsection applies, the parts add together rather than replacing each other.

• Part 1Where child support is in issue — Rule 5-1(4)
• + Parts 2, 3Where the guidelines require means or ability to be considered, or the payor is a stepparent — Rule 5-1(5)
• + Part 4Where special or extraordinary expenses are claimed — Rule 5-1(6)
• Parts 1, 2, 3, 5, 6For the party claiming undue hardship; the other party files Parts 1, 2, 3 and 6 — Rule 5-1(7)
• Parts 1, 2, 3Where spousal support is in issue — Rule 5-1(9)
• Part 3Where property division under the Family Law Act is in issue — Rule 5-1(10)

So a Supreme Court case involving child support, section 7 expenses and property division does not pick one row from that list — it collects the parts from each subsection that applies.

Form 4 works differently

The Provincial Court form is organised the same way on its face — income, expenses, assets and debts, special or extraordinary expenses, income of others in the household, undue hardship — but the allocation is made by the form itself, which states that it has six parts and that which parts you must complete depends on your situation, rather than by a rule that maps parts to claims.

Supporting documents

The two document lists are not the same.

This is the difference that most often catches people who have completed one form and assume the other works the same way. Each court starts from a different list.

Three differences worth knowing about

• Property assessment notices — the Supreme Court list at Rule 5-1(1)(k) reaches the most recent assessment notice for every interest in real property. Rule 5-1(12) also addresses serving it with Part 3. There is no equivalent item in s. 21(1) of the Guidelines.
• Three years of benefit statements, not one — paragraphs (c) and (d) of the Supreme Court list reach the three most recent Employment Insurance and workers’ compensation benefit statements. Section 21(1)(h) of the Guidelines asks for the most recent statement, or a letter from the authority showing the year’s total.
• Income assistance — paragraph (e) of the Supreme Court list asks for current documentary evidence, and income assistance for this purpose includes disability assistance under the Employment and Assistance for Persons with Disabilities Act.

There is also a drafting point worth noticing in Provincial Court: Rule 25(1)(b) engages the Guidelines list for child support. Where the application is for spousal support, Rule 25(1)(c) requires the Form 4 without expressly importing that document list, so the form itself governs what accompanies it. Section 21(1) of the Guidelines is by its own terms framed around a child support order.

One more Supreme Court requirement that has no Provincial Court counterpart: Rule 5-1(3) provides that every page of the income documents used in court is to be numbered sequentially.

The full document list, with the rule behind each item: Supporting documents for a BC financial statement →

Timing

In Provincial Court, the Form 4 often isn’t the first step.

In the Supreme Court, the sequence is comparatively direct: a claim is made and served, and Rule 5-1(11) provides the time for filing and serving the Form F8 — within 30 days after service of the document making the claim where service was in Canada or the United States, and 60 days elsewhere. That sequence is at How a Supreme Court family case starts.

The Provincial Court route now usually begins earlier, and not with an application at all.

The practical consequence is that a Provincial Court user often meets the Form 4 later than expected: after the early resolution steps, when the Application About a Family Law Matter (Form 3) is filed, or when a Reply (Form 6) is filed in answer to one. Content written before May 2026 that describes “file Form 3 with Form 4” as the starting sequence is out of date for most BC Provincial Court readers.

Different rules apply depending on which side you are on

In Provincial Court the Form 4 requirement does not come from one rule. Which rule applies turns on whether you are starting the application or replying to one — a distinction worth getting right, because the two paths have different steps and different timing.

Where Form 4 fits in that sequence: How a Provincial Court family case starts →
Application About a Family Law Matter (Form 3) →
Reply to an Application (Form 6) →

Names that collide

Not to be confused with.

Two form names in BC family practice are close enough to cause real filing errors.

• Supreme Court Form F4 is not a financial statement. It is the Response to Family Claim, under Supreme Court Family Rules, Rule 4-3 — a different document with a different purpose. The Provincial Court financial statement is Form 4, with no prefix. The “F” prefix marks Supreme Court forms.
• Provincial Court Form 8 is not Form F8. Provincial Court Form 8 is the Reply to a Counter Application (PFA716). The Supreme Court financial statement is Form F8. The bare number and the F-prefixed number belong to different courts.

A useful rule of thumb when reading anything about BC family forms: an F prefix means the Supreme Court Family Rules; a bare number means the Provincial Court Family Rules.

Watch out for

Common problems, stated neutrally.

• Filing the other court’s form — the forms are prescribed separately and are not interchangeable.
• Treating Form F8 as an all-or-nothing document — Rule 5-1 assigns parts by what is claimed, and applicable subsections combine.
• Carrying the Guidelines document list into a Supreme Court filing — Rule 5-1(1) has its own list, including the property assessment notices at paragraph (k).
• Letting a served Form F8 go stale — Rule 5-1(18) addresses a statement last served more than 91 days before a trial or hearing.
• Leaving income document pages unnumbered — Rule 5-1(3) provides for sequential page numbering of income documents used in court.
• Assuming a Provincial Court case starts with an application — in an early resolution registry the process begins earlier, with a Form 1 and a needs assessment.
• Reading “F4” as the Provincial Court financial statement — the Provincial Court form is Form 4; Supreme Court Form F4 is the Response to Family Claim.
• Working from an old version of either form — court forms are amended; use the current official version published by the Province.

When you know which one

Build it in plain questions.

Repmyself.ca walks through either form section by section, totals what you enter, and produces the completed official form — a PDF plus an editable Word copy — for you to review, swear and file. Build and preview free; you pay only when you export.

Want a lawyer to check it before you file? Have your statement reviewed.