<p>Okay, so I think I may have made a grave error on my FAFSA and while I do not want to shoot myself in the foot I definitely do not want to put myself in a situation where I am liable to be looked at as trying to defraud anyone. Here's the deal: I am 25 years old and by all rights an independent student and filed my FAFSA as such. On my 2012 tax return I initially claimed my own exemption as I typically do and proceeded to file my FAFSA for 2013. Some time in march I get a call from my grandmother telling me that she is going to claim me on her taxes and that I need to file an amended return so that she may do so. I do this and have to pay the irs a little bit which I did. Based on the fact that I was considered independent because of my age I didn't touch my FAFSA. Fast forward I am awaiting my official aide award and am not sure if I will be selected for verification. I went into my FAFSA to update my address and after scanning through things I come to the untaxed income box which is blank. My question is if I am selected for verification and cannot use the direct link to IRS because of the amended return what then? I did receive some help from her but because of how it was worded I didn't make the connection. I am confused and do not want an honest mistake to turn into a karmic *****slap or denial of aide that I do truly need, what do I do and is it too late? :-/</p>
<p>There is no conflicts between claiming independent on FAFSA and filing as dependent on your tax returns.</p>
<p>You’re fine.</p>
<p>However, was your grandma right to be claiming you? Were you her dependent last year? IF not, don’t let her do that again. You have the right to claim yourself if you’re supporting yourself.</p>
<p>Your grandmother has to have provided over 50% of your upkeep in order to be able to claim you as a dependent. So the “some help” has to have covered a majority of your living expenses (car and/or health insurance, food, lodging, clothing, medical and personal expenses, tution, etc). Did you live with her, or did she cover any of your major expenses?</p>
<p>I did not live with her, and yes i guess she did provide over half of my support for the year, but most of that was after when i filed, a bunch of things came up and she helped me out, she’s working on a number, I had 15 units of all science, major health issues, and had to move so it was pretty much a blur. Should I only address it if it comes up? I will be up a creek if I get nothing in aide. I’m wondering if it would be best to change it now and risk delay, or wait until it comes up in which case, could the change include the risk of being denied any aide in addition to a delay?</p>
<p>She need to provide you with more than a documented 50% of your support in calendar year 2012 in order to claim you as a dependent. If it was after you filed that is 2013 and her claiming you as a dependent in 2012 is tax fraud.</p>
<p>Remember if you took out student loans in your name, those are considered support provided by you for yourself.</p>
<p>You say most of it was after you filed - are you saying she paid bills from 2012, buy paid them for you in 2013? If that is the case, then she did not in fact provide that support in 2013. Are you saying she paid your tuition, plus medical expenses, and moving expenses all during 2012?</p>
<p>As far as financial aid you should be fine (in fact since you are still old enough to be independent for FA purposes, your EFC shoud decrease if anything, because you ended up paying more taxes, but the rest of your numbers should stay the same. </p>
<p>As for your grandmother claiming you, you would need to qualify as either s “qualifying child” (you fail the residency test), or a “qualifying relative.” To be a qualifying relative, not only did your grandmother need to provide more than half your support, but you had to have gross income less than $3800. If you owed the IRS move once you didn’t claim your own exemption, that suggests that your gross income was more than $3800. I suspect your grandmother is not in fact eligible to claim you as a dependent.</p>
<p>You say that she gave you money AFTER you filed. Well you would have filed in 2013, so any money she gave you was not in 2012. </p>
<p>She shouldn’t have claimed you for last year if the monies weren’t given in 2012.</p>