CSS/general financial help please!

Paying for College
1

<p>My parents (both ESL and Korean, no GED) recently went through a messy divorce and our financials are everywhere (reasons for divorce was due to messy financials). My mom is now a single parent and has re-entered the job force after 17 years of not working and doesn't know how our taxes were filed etc (my dad did that messily). I don't have any contact with my dad and my aunt came from Korea a few years back but does not work and stays with us due to medical bills/heath reasons. </p>

<p>On the forms, they say that if you don't know/does not apply, to simply leave blank or put a
'0' and now there are an awful lot of zeros and I'm trying my best to understand the 1040 tax copies I have. How detrimental are my chances if my application becomes more more lacking in financial information? </p>

<p>I know I live in a low income family and have a free-reduced lunch in the school district but my parents didn't know how to apply for any other form of money-aids. Should I just explain the situation in the boxes they provide?</p>

2

<p>On the FAFSA form, you would put the information from your MOM if you have been living with her for more than half of 2012. It sounds like that is the case. SO…what you need to find out is what your MOM earned in 2012…and taxes paid, etc. for
FAFSA purposes you do not list your dads income/assets unless you actually lived with him more than half the time. </p>

<p>So…ask your mom about HER income and assets. Get that information. Assets are done as of the date of filing the FAFSA (which isn’t available until January 1)…so any asset issues prior to that date don’t matter. Your MOM should be able to give you HER information.</p>

<p>Having said all of that…if you apply to a school requiring the Profile, your MOM will complete the Profile using HER information as your custodial parent. Your dad would then complete the non-custodial parent profile using his information.</p>