What happens if I know a person who has Immigrant Parents and don’t file their Taxes but they need to get some sort of aid for College. What can that person do?
If the parents earn enough that they are required to file taxes, they must do so - if they don’t, they cannot truthfully answer the income questions on the FAFSA. If they were not required to file taxes, though, they do not need to do so.
The tax year that is needed for the 2017-2018 fafsa is the 2015 tax year.
If the family was required to file taxes in 2015, and didn’t, they should do so ASAP.
You mean where the parents are earning money and should be filing taxes, but aren’t? Unless the tax filings are done, I don’t think there’s any way to get federal aid (institutional aid may be a different story, depending on school policy).
Late returns can be filed for previous years, although penalties and interest may be owed.
Is the student a citizen or permanent resident? If not, he can’t file the FAFSA anyway. There may be state programs available or the school may accept a paper copy of the FAFSA.
@twoinanddone the issue is the parents did not file taxes. Even if the student can file a paper fafsa…the student will NOT get aid if the parents were required to file U.S. taxes and didn’t do so.
Yes, but if the student doesn’t have the status to file a FAFSA, it doesn’t really matter if the parents filed taxes or not. If the student does have the status, then yes, they are going to have to figure out the 2015 tax issues.
If the student expects federal student aid, then the student & parents have to comply with federal law.
If the student wants to exclude the parents from the need-based FA equation, then the student can:
- get married
- wait till age 24 to be recognized by colleges as independent
- join the military
- get a merit scholarship that has no need-based consideration
- have deceased parents
If the parents claim that earnings are so low that they have no need to file, then they will likely be asked how they live and who is paying their bills.
Are the parents undocumented? Or immigrants w/o jobs?