<p>hi. i've been trying to find information on divorced parents, who you can claim on the fasfa, what information from your noncustodial parent is needed. and i realize it doesn't matter which parent claims you on their taxes. heres my situation. My parents got divorced and it worked out that this year i need to claim one of them on my fasfa. i live with my mom, who makes significantly more than my dad and owns a house. now my dad is bad with money. he doesn't make a whole lot and he lives in a trailor. now i know that i'm supposed to claim my mom on the fasfa but i will get very little financial aid this way. my question is if i'm able to claim my dad and save myself about $20,000 next school year. Does anyone know anything about this?</p>
<p>If you know you're supposed to claim your mom, are you asking how to cheat the taxpayers whose taxes subsidize Federal student aid?</p>
<p>I was told that at any point the school can request your parent's tax returns in addition to the FAFSA. I don't think you would want to risk misrepresenting the truth in something this important.</p>
<p>It doesn't matter who claims you on your taxes, you need to include the financial information of your custodial parent. Since you live with your mother, she's the one who provides your support and should be the one whose income appears on FAFSA. She should also, incidentally, be the one claiming you on her taxes so that she can file as Head of Household, which should reduce her overall tax burden.</p>
<p>You live with your mom. She is your custodial parent. You MUST provide the information from your custodial parent on your FAFSA form. I'm sorry, but there is no way to use your dad as your custodial parent for FAFSA purposes...because he is NOT your custodial parent.</p>
<p>And lying about who your custodial parent is, is also a violation of Federal law. You don't want to do that.</p>
<p>When you sign the FAFSA, you're agreeing that everything is true and that you understand there are penalties for lying. If your mother is your custodial parent by FAFSA rules and you put your father instead, you can risk losing your financial aid, now and in the future. </p>
<p>Look, be honest about it. If you lived with your mother, then your mother is the custodial parent for the FAFSA. The nice thing is that for Profile schools that want your non-custodial parent info, at least your father's income won't be a problem.</p>
<p>I've seen this question many times before, and I caution people to be careful how they answer this question. If the parents have joint custody, and the child splits their time evenly between the two homes, you claim the parent that provides more of the actual financial support for the child.</p>
<p>In this case, it sounds like the mom is the one that should be claimed, but that is not always the case. </p>
<p>You may be costing someone thousands of dollars a year by answering this question in a generic fashion.</p>
<p>Vderon, you are very correct...but this is from the OP's post:</p>
<p>"i know that i'm supposed to claim my mom on the fasfa but i will get very little financial aid this way"</p>
<p>Seems to me she knows that she needs to use her mom (who earns more money, owns the house she lives in, etc) but wondered if there were a way to use her dad instead.</p>
<p>As you pointed out, IF there is shared custody with the dad AND he contributes the majority of her support, she can use him. </p>
<p>The other thing she could have done was move in with Dad at the beginning of her senior year of high school.</p>
<p>Eligibility for finaid dependency and tax dependency are very separate, but the parent who claims this child as dependent on their taxes (and only ONE can) is usually the one who has contributed the most to their support. Sounds like it was mom.</p>
<p>When in doubt, however, FAFSA does have a phone line for questions.</p>