My mom and step dad have said on their taxes for years that they are unmarried and living together. Except they are legally married. I’m applying for financial aid and my parents taxes reflect what I said on my fafsa, but the school needs marriage and divorce certificates because they have the same last name. (Because they’re married). I’m really close to the deadline for all the financial aid stuff and I’m just freaking out. I don’t want my mom to go to jail but I want to go to college. What do I do and what is the next steps if we tell the college the truth?
Talk to a lawyer
While this is all wrong, I don’t understand how the school even knows about your stepdad since your mom has been filing her taxes as a single person. How does the school even know he exists?
Are you sure of your facts? I found out many years later that my mom had never married who I called my step-dad. It didn’t make sense for her financially. Their taxes were all made out accurately to my knowledge.
There is no place on the tax forms for them to say they are living together but not married.
There is no such thing as living together but not married on tax forms. Are they married but filing separately. That’s a thing and perfectly legal to do.
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My mom and step dad have said on their taxes for years that they are unmarried and living togethe
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Do you mean that each has been filing separately and have listed themselves as “single”?
No one puts on their tax form that they’re “living together”. Maybe only one partner works? And if so, maybe that person is claiming the other as a dependent, but not married to that person? (I have no idea if that’s possible).
Yes, “Member of Household” as a dependent:
See https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1894472-can-i-claim-my-relative-or-friend-as-my-dependent
Does each spouse work?
Is only one spouse filing taxes (as single) but listing the other spouse as a dependent (but using the same last name?)
If the parents were separated (and not living together), then that is generally enough, but it sounds like this is all just some game, but the spouses strangely used the same last name (which would be a big red flag).
Your parents will need to provide appropriate documentation to your college about their marital status…or you won’t get aid.
Secondary to that…if they are married and filed as single or head of household when the status didn’t apply…the will need to fix their tax filing so you can correctly link to the irs dat retrieval tool…or you won’t get aid.
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Your parents will need to provide appropriate documentation to your college about their marital status…or you won’t get aid.
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This is the weird part. If they’re claiming that they’re not/never-married, then there would be no documentation to show. Unmarried folks don’t have documentation showing that they’re not married.
Now, if they truly are legally married, then there is documentation, but they’re not going to provide it because they’re claiming that they’ve never been married.
The crazy part was thinking they could pull this off while having the same last name…unless the mom coincidentally had that same last name as her maiden name…(like a Smith marrying a Smith).
If the mom has taken on the dad’s last name w/o marriage, she’d have to show some kind of court record of the name change.
W/O such things, I wonder why the IRS didn’t get suspicious unless they thought this was her brother??? Lol
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Either way, I don’t see this being resolved in time to get aid for college. The parents are likely going to refuse to correct all their wrong tax returns because they’ll likely owe money and pay penalties.
The parents are going to “do the math.” They’ll either just pay for college without aid (if they can), or tell the child that he’s not going to get aid, so commute to a local CC or wherever.
I really think the student needs to take a gap year while things sort out. If he’s a rising frosh, he’ll need to change his app list to schools that will give him HUGE aid where he won’t need need-based aid.
@“Erin’s Dad”
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Are you sure of your facts? I found out many years later that my mom had never married who I called my step-dad. It didn't make sense for her financially. Their taxes were all made out accurately to my knowledge.
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I know that some do this for retirement plan, SS, or other financial reasons. Was your mom able to change her last name or did she keep her former last name?
I’m wondering if the OP’s parents may have had a “wedding ceremony” but maybe never filed a marriage license and maybe someone were able to use the same last name??? I know that when you get legally married, a spouse can change their last name without any other complications or court dealings. Don’t know how it’s done outside of marriage.
My BIL’s parents had the same last name both before and after they married.
Worst case scenario, if your parents aren’t able/don’t want to clear up the tax fraud issue, I believe you may still be able to receive the unsubsidized $5500 loan if you fill out a form from your financial aid office. I had a friend who did that when his parents committed tax fraud but refused to amend their taxes to allow him to get financial aid. It’s not very much, though, so it’s in everyone’s best interest that this is cleared up, of course.
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My BIL’s parents had the same last name both before and after they married.
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Yup! I mentioned that as a possible scenario…like Eleanor Roosevelt
My grandparents also had this situation.
For my BIL, only issue was that people thought he was stupid when he listed his mother’s maiden… He finally just resorted to using another name when asked the question.
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situation of same names before/after marriage? Or a tax issue?
If the OP’s parents’ situation is that the mom already had that last name, then that can be easily shown.
the college is asking for documentation that these folks were NOT married. The question is…why are both parents using the same name if not married? Is the state a common law marriage state?
But really…ARE these people married?? Maybe they aren’t!