According to FAFSA terms, “When two married persons live as a married couple but are separated by physical distance (or have separate households), they are considered married for FAFSA purposes”. This is the reason why I put married as the marital status on my FAFSA application. Also, for those of you saying that she should file as “Head of Household”, my mom did. However, she was audited and changed the filing status to “married filed separately” which is where she currently is. The audit was just a simple change in filing status
Thank you all for your messages and help. I have a massive headache from the constant stress. I appreciate the help and thank you for keeping me sane. I’ll update you guys tomorrow after visiting the financial aid office in person. Talking to them on phone has caused a massive confusion. Thanks again
The FAFSA would still have to state separated. That’s what key here. Plenty of people still married and together in bliss in 2017, filing taxes , jointly or married separately, find themselves separated by October of 2018 when the FAFSA featured here was released. Doesn’t matter how they filed that 2017 return if they were separated by the day that FAFSA was completed. Whether the mother could have filed as HOH is atax issue, not a FAFSA one
@BelknapPoint brings up a relevant point in that the parents may not have considered themselves as separated by FAFSA definition that day the FAFSA was filed. Just because a married couple are living separately, even half the world apart, if they consider the separation temporary—I don’t recall exact FAFSA language, then they are married by that definition.
But if the mother when filling out the FAFSa mistakenly Marked “married” because the 2017 return was filed “Married filing separately “ , that is a bonafide mistake and the financial aid officer should be apprised of this. If the father is still gone and contact lost, it can bring substance to that claim. I believe the OP and mother can correct that marital status on that FAFSA Online— I think SSN and the date FAFSA was filed are two things that cannot be changed on line, with latter not changeable.
(Update) So I went to financial aid office and they said once again that my parents have to file an amended tax return. I mentioned that my brother used the same same taxes as I did when he filed for financial aid and that he was able to get a good financial aid package without problems. Unfortunately, she said that my financial aid application was flagged by random for verification. She mentioned that my parents are considered married even though they live in separate households. Furthermore, she stated that when a married couple file as “married filed separately” they both MUST file taxes. Even if they my dad had an income of $0, he should still file taxes. Since he is out of the U.S. and will not file taxes due to disability, then my only option is to file an amended tax return. What pissed me off was that the whole time she was sighing. She was condescending and I knew she didn’t want to help me with this situation because I called 3 times the day before to argue for my case. Seriously, the gross income of my mom for 2017 was under 10K and I depend on financial aid. I swear they are targeting low income families by making them verify their financial aid and making the process more stressful. I told her about the students who are not selected for financial aid verification even though their parents have tax issues. She then said that they will still get financial aid because they don’t need to verify even if they have tax problems. Something shady is going on with the financial aid office. I called the IRS again, waited 45 minutes on hold, and I get another condescending women (probably hates her job) who said that I should talk to a tax accountant and that she is not going to help.
I decided f*** this so I went to a tax accountant, payed $150 out of desperation and helped me fill out the amended tax return. The filing status was changed to “married filing jointly” as the financial aid office instructed. My mom doesn’t care if I go to college as long as I just work. I don’t want to spend my whole life working in a terrible job flipping burgers. I want to go to medical school and do great things in the future. No family member wants to help me so I have to fix the mess that was on the taxes. She signed the amended tax return. My cousin actually found my dad and we managed to talk about the taxes through the phone. He said it was fine the we filed jointly and gave us permission to sign on his behalf according to IRS regulations.
I’m going to send a copy to my financial aid office. The representative said that the office might ask for an amend transcript as proof that it was filed. The problem is that the amend takes 12-16 weeks to process so I might not get financial aid and will to drop out. Hopefully the financial aid office is fine with the 1040X amended return and gives me financial aid. Thank you guys once again for the tremendous support, I really appreciate it. I will keep ya’ll updated if I get financial aid or drop out. See ya soon
She didn’t specify and kept repeating that they have to both file. She was pissed off because I kept insisting for more information. I called yesterday and financial aid processors reviewed my account multiple times. They supported her claim so I told the tax accountant about it. Tax accountant said that it’s better to just amend the taxes because on the positive side, my mom would actually be getting a refund she didn’t get and the office would stop bothering me.
I’m still guessing your issue is that in the FAFSA, you indicated “married” as the marital status. If that is the case, the school could expect to see something regarding income for both parents. The amended return does that.
If you give them the original 2017 tax return filed and the 1040X that should provide the FA office with proof of income. The 1040 X only shows what was changed, in this case filing status.
The income won’t change.
I assume your mom filed separately because your dad was not available to sign and she was audited when she tried to file HOH.
She should work with your dad to file married jointly for 2018 as well. She might qualify for American Opportunity tax credit or earned income credit.
The IRS might not require it (or there may be no consequences), but the school does. The school, when it is verifying, can ask for the tax information on both parents and that’s what it did. The mother’s forms were submitted, the father’s were not so the school can deem the file incomplete and the school has no way to complete it. Schools DO tell students that the filing status with the IRS is wrong and the forms won’t be accepted. The IRS was fine with the filing status but the school was not.
She seems to have found the easiest way to complete it, by amending the forms with permission of the second filer/parent. This also allows the mother to take the AOTC, which the accountant should have included on the amended return.
The school may require a verification of non-filing, but no school will require that a parent file a tax return when there is no legal requirement to do so.
Schools have not allowed HOH filing status. There might be no IRS legal requirement for the person to file, but the schools hold all the cards ($$$) so they are ‘requiring’ the parent to file. In this case, the school would not accept the argument that the parent wasn’t legally required to file.
In this case, we don’t know what was argued, what the school’s position is, or what the school’s rationale is. All we have is the second-hand reporting by the OP. If you want to second-guess at what is happening, I can do that too: OP has been dealing with an obstinate and clueless FA staffer who doesn’t understand the school’s policies or how to properly apply those policies. Heck, I don’t know the ground truth here, so I’ll just make something up that fits my thinking.