<p>Perhaps this has been covered already but if not, here goes.</p>
<p>Many of us are in this situation, divorced, with one ex making a lot more than the other. FAFSA rules are pretty clear about custodial parent, BUT let's say the children live 50/50 and parents agree to make the lower income parent custodial, thus qualifying for much more aid than if the higher-salaried parent (120k) filed out the FAFSA. This wouldn't flly by the IRS, but it would by FAFSA.</p>
<p>What happens when colleges say, "You and your sons are living on 25k a year? Let's see the ex's financials." Then will we be penalized, or have some other adverse outcome? Plus - then what happens if the ex renegs on promise to help with tuition? Is the FAFSA parent on the hook - if it's determined there's enough money there to pay for some tuition?</p>
<p>I keep going around on this partly of the ethics, even though FAFSA lets parents determine custodial parent (bascially - it's self-reported) because I wouldn't want to do anything to mess up getting aid. But we want to qualify for max aid.</p>
<p>My sons are both applying to both pricey and state schools, and will get accepted by most.</p>
<p>Double-check to make sure your pricey schools are FAFSA only. Many pricey schools require the CSS Profile that takes the non-custodial parent’s financials into account.</p>
<p>FAFSA only schools do not meet need. So unless your state has great aid for the low income, they will expect a parent plus loan. Also keep in mind any spousal and child support is income.</p>
<p>Private schools that meet need will count the second parent’s income/assets whether or not they contribute. They will also look at income/assets of any new spouse.</p>
<p>As mentioned above, most of the ones who “meet need” don’t just use the income info of one parent. </p>
<p>As an aside…I hope one day FAFSA rules change to include both parents - especially if they shared custody. No one is going to convince me that families don’t manipulate the situation to declare the lower income parent as “custodial”.</p>
<p>There are always a few bad apples in every barrell…but from what I’ve seen over the years, there are far more single parent homes where the NCP is absent entirely or unwilling to pay even child support. Unless the courts are willing to include college contributions in support agreements, and support agreements are enforced, a change to FAFSA would leave many kids without any options.</p>
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<p>FAFSA rules are very clear and state that if the kid lives with both parents equally, the parent who provided more financial support is the parent for FAFSA purposes. This would likely be the $120K earner. Is it possible to lie and not get caught? Probably. But if you don’t want to be one of the bad apples, please just fill out the form honestly. Federal aid is meant to help the truly needy and I’m sure many institutional donors feel the same way. Encourage your boys to look for schools where they can get significant merit aid.</p>
<p>The parents can’t “make this agreement” unless they agree that the child will LIVE with the lower income earner for more than 50% of the time. If it’s really 50/50 then the parent providing the MOST financial support to the child MUST be the parent listed as custodial on the FAFSA. Those are the rules. But as parents, you COULD agree that the student will live with the lower wage earner for greater than 50% of the time and then that parent would be the custodial parent listed on the FAFSA.</p>
<p>As noted, if your child applies to schools that require the Profile and/or school finaid application forms, all bets are off as many of these schools ask for financial information from BOTH parents (and spouses) regardless of marital status.</p>
<p>*The parents can’t “make this agreement” unless they agree that the child will LIVE with the lower income earner for more than 50% of the time. *</p>
<p>Right…but some do this. A student only has to live ONE DAY more with that lower income parent for this to happen in a shared custody agreement. And, there’s no way to verify this, so it’s going to get abused. </p>
<p>There are always a few bad apples in every barrell…but from what I’ve seen over the years, there are far more single parent homes where the NCP is absent entirely or unwilling to pay even child support. Unless the courts are willing to include college contributions in support agreements, and support agreements are enforced, a change to FAFSA would leave many kids without any options.</p>
<p>I realize that, but in cases where BOTH parents have been involved, the NCP has paid child support and/or custody was shared, then both parents’ income should be considered.</p>
<p>It’s ridiculous to have “joint shared custody,” but then only one income gets counted on FAFSA!</p>
<p>The same for never-married parents who still live together. It’s silly that only one parent’s income is considered just because the parents never married - but are still living together.</p>
<p>Ha ha…that’s why the whole 50% thing is stupid. Few families are keeping that close of tabs on where a child is in a shared custody agreement. There may be something specified on “paper,” but reality tends to alter those paper agreements and families have to compromise at times to accommodate illnesses, travel, etc.</p>
<p>notrich, I would think it’s whatever is in the divorce settlement regarding custody of the children. If it says 50/50 then that would be it. However, the families should be aware that if a child graduates from a high school that is NOT where the custodial parent lives, it will raise a red flag.</p>
<p>With the exception of leap years where there are 366 days, there are no 50/50 splits because parent has the child 182 days and the other has the child one day, 183 (unless you are splitting that day and turning over the child at noon so that they are exactly equal).</p>
<p>At the end of the day the only thing the fafsa does is qualify one for federal aid. The overwhelming majority of FAFSA only schools do not meet 100% demonstrated need, so it will nto be enough to cover the cost of college (perhaps the local CC or in-state if living at home). </p>
<p>If a child is applying for an opportunity program or a school with deep pockets there is a great likelihood that the school is going to request the CSS profile, or thier own institutional form to get the income/assets of the non-custodial parent.</p>
<p>It’s where the student lived the most in the past 12 months. If the student split time between parents, there is still most likely one parent with whom the student spent more time. For those who say “I spent the exact same amount with each parent,” then it’s the one who earns the most … because that would be the one most able to provide the most during the equally-split time.</p>
<p>Actually, I don’t know of anyone whose kid really splits nights 50-50 by high school because of schools, activities, clothes, friends and, sometimes, how well they get along with one parent versus another. This holds true even for people I know who purposely live so close to each other that the kids can attend the same school. There really isn’t that much wiggle room in the form; it’s pretty clear.</p>
<p>Actually, I don’t know of anyone whose kid really splits nights 50-50 by high school because of schools, activities, clothes, friends and, sometimes, how well they get along with one parent versus another.</p>
<p>Exactly! I’ve known families who have 50/50 split on paper with very detailed splitting that supposed to equal 50% split…but reality ends up splitting differently.</p>
<p>That said, there still is too much wiggle room for families to be dishonest in order to list the parent who has the lower income.</p>
<p>My boys ended up alternating a week and a half at each house, changing every other Wednesday or Sunday. This was their choice as they felt alternating weeks was a little too inconvenient with bringing stuff back & forth, and 2 weeks was too long to go. Expenses were split exactly 50/50. Incomes were roughly the same. As a crude measure of who provided the most support, my mortgage + property taxes were twice what my ex-H’s rent was. I never bothered to count up the nights the boys spent at each house, but they were pretty close to 50/50 over the course of a calendar year.</p>
<p>"That said, there still is too much wiggle room for families to be dishonest in order to list the parent who has the lower income. "</p>
<p>But there’s wiggle room to be dishonest about different issues on the FAFSA. People can hide $100K in their mattresses and no one would ever know. </p>
<p>Divorced families really do not have some advantage. Child support is listed as ‘income’ on the FAFSA and schools that meet need will take into account all the stepparents’ income which is often completely unrealistic. (And it’s not just because some stepparents may not be willing to pay for it. It’s also because FAFSA presumes that people have been saving since the child was born. Well the <em>stepparent</em> surely wasn’t saving or planning unless the divorce is very old so the totals are more likely to be skewed.)</p>
<p>Vball, I believe you-- I just don’t think it’s the case with most kids of divorced parents.</p>
<p>That’s true. And people can also fake their own deaths to get their children declared as independent! </p>
<p>Hell, it’s not like the aid that the FAFSA qualifies is all that generous anyway. If it’s really going to make a difference, you probably don’t make enough for it to be worth it either way.</p>
<p>It is much, much, much, much, much easier to list the lower income parent as the one you lived with most than it is to fake one’s own death. That’s just a ridiculous analogy.</p>
<p>And…you may think we’re talking small amounts of money, but that’s not true. For every phony 0 EFC, that’s at least $22k of tax payer money (not counting sub loans, work-study, and other fed grants). And, if there are 2 or more kids in a family that is doing this…that’s $44k, $66k, 88k+ of tax payer money.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that some of the tax payers who are paying for those funds earn less than the higher income parents whose children are wrongly getting that money. Imagine the intact household that has an EFC just over Pell amounts is paying for the grants that should not be awarded. That’s ridiculous.</p>
<p>“For every phony 0 EFC, that’s at least $22k of tax payer money (not counting sub loans, work-study, and other fed grants).”</p>
<p>How do you figure it’s <em>at least</em> 22K without sub loans, ws and other federal grants? Again, there are all sorts of lies people can make.</p>
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