Yep. The father is claiming these kids on HIS taxes…therefore implying that he supports them too.
You can’t really have it both was…either he does…or he doesn’t.
The support test for claiming your biological children as dependents is not that you provided more than 50% of their support. It’s that they didn’t provide 50% of their own support.
Thanks @allyphoe
I think the issue here is whether or not these kids (one over 18) who are not siblings, but are living in the house are really being supported by this poster’s mom. And can they be counted as members of the household for financial aid purposes?
@kelsmom? Your thoughts?
OP has said multiple times that her mom provides more than half their support, and has made no statements that would cast doubt on that claim. I personally see no issue there.
How do you know your mom provides more than half of the support of her boyfriend’s children if you don’t know what he earns? If he’s providing health insurance for them that’s a decent amount of money.
When you say your mom pays the “majority of bills/food,” what does that mean? Does she pay for utilities and food and he pays for rent? Or is he not paying anything? If he works, he should be supporting his children. If he can pay when your mom runs low on funds, maybe she should get him to contribute all the time so she has money to help you pay for school.
Assuming the support test for FAFSA is identical to the support test for income tax purposes, how much someone earns is not relevant. How much they pay is the relevant question.
Only the amount the boyfriend pays towards health insurance premiums would count as support provided by him. If he has employer-paid health insurance, it’s my reading of the relevant IRS publication that those amounts are disregarded in determining support.
OP, here’s the Pub you can use to figure out what’s support and what’s not: https://www.irs.gov/publications/p501#en_US_2017_publink1000220972
And a more legible version of Worksheet 2: https://apps.irs.gov/app/vita/content/globalmedia/teacher/worksheet_for_determining_support_4012.pdf