I’m not sure if late fees and penalty would apply. You could ask them if they would have an idea how much.
They probably will charge a fee for filing the tax returns too.
I would also check with the school to see if amending your mom’s return would delay processing of your financial aid.
You are using 2015 tax year again in October for next year’s FAFSA too so if it would cause trouble you might want to just leave your mom’s 2015 return alone and just file yours.
@BelknapPoint I’m just wondering if I have to pay a fee.
@mommdc Do you mean FA disbursement? Because my school already gave me my financial aid award for this school year coming up.
Pay a fee to who? There is no “fee” that is charged by the government to pay your taxes. As I said above, if you are paying after the deadline there may be a late payment penalty to pay as well as interest on the amount due. If you are asking if an accountant or tax preparer will charge a fee to do work for you, the answer is “of course they will! That’s how they make their living.”
And the award can always change based on new information that becomes available.
Yes, and they go by what income you reported on the FAFSA. If anything changes, they will need to know.
Amended returns don’t get processed right away so the college might need a copy of the 1040X that shows the changes compared to original return. They would tell you what they need.
If you don’t want to deal with amending mom’s, then you should still file your return.
There should not be much tax owed on $417.02 and it’s only been 4 months since tax filing deadline in April so the penalty should not be that high either.
How much did you have to pay for getting your mom’s tax return filed? I assume with $16,000 income it was not a complicated return.
^I mean it’s been three months since April
@mommdc My mom had to pay $100 to file her return. I think I’m just going to file my own return so I don’t have to deal with amending my moms. After filing mine will I have to update my FAFSA? Also, how much do you think the tax that I would need to pay?
I would guess about 10%, so maybe $40
Did your FAFSA ask for your income and assets or just your mom’s?
Yes.
For single taxpayers in 2015, taxable income that exceeds the deduction and any exemptions is subject to tax at a rate of 10% up to $9,225 over the deduction + exemptions amount. You shouldn’t have to worry about any higher brackets. There’s also the late filing/payment penalty, as well as interest, that may be owed.
If mom only made $16,000 and qualified for auto $0 EFC then I believe student income and assets would not be needed to be reported. That’s why I asked.
https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc653.html
this page outlines some penalty/interest info
On $40 I would not expect it to be more than maybe $10
@mommdc Yeah I was asked about my income and assets.
Then your mom must have had a low enough income, but didn’t have the extra qualifier.
Did your family get free/reduced lunch or SNAP in 2015 or 2014?
If completing FAFSA online, would the skip logic then eliminate the student questions about tax completion status, type of return filed, and filing status?
@mommdc Yeah I had free lunch in high school! I graduated high school June 2015.
Then did you answer the question on FAFSA with yes? It should ask this right after parent income
@mommdc I might have put no because I thought it was like school year, not calendar year. 
I thought it was for the current college year.
EDIT: I actually just checked my FAFSA, and there is no answer under it. Should I make a correction on my FAFSA, so that it says “yes” for the “student received free/reduced lunch?”
My mom files a 1040 I believe by the way.
@BelknapPoint, I have no direct experience with this, but if OP goes in and corrects FAFSA to reflect that they had a federal means tested benefit she might be able to tell us what it is doing.
Yes, if you received free lunch in school year 2014/15 then you should be able to correct it to say yes to that question.
@mommdc This is for my 2016-2017 FAFSA? I filled the 2016-2017 FAFSA with my moms 2015 income tax return.
That makes sense, another auto zero EFC qualifier would be if mom could file 1040A or 1040EZ but she didn’t.