For the past three years I have been reporting that my father is divorced thinking that fafsa was asking for the marital status between him and my biological mother. My father has been filing his taxes as head of household so I never thought there was a need to put down that my father is remarried and my stepparent lives with us. Recently, my school sent a verification form in which they asked for additional info to which I put down my stepmothers name. They reached out again because they saw that on fafsa my father is listed as divorced but on the verification form I put down my stepmothers name. Im very worried that my aid is going to be affected and that I may need to possibly owe back what was given to me. Additionally, my dad is the breadwinner in the house because my stepmother does not make enough money. As a first gen student I never had the help when it came to filling out fafsa and was never corrected on this mistake until now, three years into my undergrad. Should I be worried? What should I do? This was all an honest mistake but I am worried my school is not going to think so.
You have to use the correct status for your father. If he is remarried, then he’s not (for tax purposes) divorced or HOH.
If you were using the data retrieval tool on the FAFSA, it should have picked up the error.
All you can do now is provide the information asked for. If your step mother doesn’t contributed to the family income, it may not matter (same income as what was reported?). You may also have a larger family size, with the step mother as an additional member.
I can’t tell you what will happen, but I can tell you that you need to answer honestly. Was your father married to your stepmom in 2018? If so, he most likely was not able to file his taxes as head of household (in some rare circumstances, it is allowed, but it’s rare). If he was supposed to file as married (either jointly or separately), he will be required to amend his taxes in order for you to get aid. If you already received aid & the selection for verification happened after you were given aid, you may end up having to repay aid. Please don’t panic. Begin by talking with a financial aid officer at your school.
People make mistakes. You need to correct the errors, and provide the college with any info they ask for. If income isn’t appreciably changed, you might not see any change at all in your aid. Just do what they ask…and see.
If your dad is married, and you reside with him most…and he is the parent on your FAFSA…his wife needs to be included. The marital status should have been “married” if they were married the day you filed your FAFSA form.
But I do believe you will still have an issue if he was married and filed as Head of Household. This can be done but only in very special circumstances. Usually married folks file as Married Filing Jointly or Married Filing Separately. If your parent tax filing status doesn’t match their marital status, this could be an issue as well.
@BelknapPoint your thoughts?
@thumper1 @kelsmom @twoinanddone weve been going back to my dads taxes as far as 2015 and in all of his taxes its marked of as head of household when this whole time my dad and his wife were under the impression that their taxes were being filed as “married but separated”. My dad remarried 9 years ago so I am very worried because if I go back into my fafsa and make these corrections they’re going to know something is up. These past three years I’ve been using the data retrieval tool and only this year did my school ask for household information. Im not understanding why after three years they’re asking for this information. Now because my dads taxes have been filed under Head of Household is there a need to make corrections and include my stepparents name on there and well as the household info form that my school is asking for?
Also thank you for your immediate responses it really means a lot because I have been over the top stressed out about this.
The school should have given you a specific list of what they want for verification. Provide only what they have asked for.
If your dad has been incorrectly filing as Head of Household he probably has been paying too much tax if your stepmom doesn’t make much. He could even potentially get a refund for the last 3 years. So it may be a collective win for your family. Either way it probably needs to be corrected. I don’t think there is any way to avoid the issue, and it is not certain that it works against you and not in your favor.
I agree. If your stepmother earns little enough, MFJ is favorable. How was she filing in prior years?
I agree that you should just provide the school what they requested. You will most likely be told that your dad needs to amend his taxes, and since he will probably end up getting a refund, it’s worth it to do that.