<p>I have two major questions concerning both of these FA forms. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>My parents are divorced & I now live with my mom and stepdad. For tax forms in 2011, ONLY my mom claimed me and my siblings as dependents. My stepdad filed separately from my mom & only put himself down. Therefore I was told when filling out FAFSA, I only had to put down my mom's icome since only she claims me as a dependent. Is this correct? Am I allowed to only put her income down? There is a large difference between putting only hers ($20K) versus putting her and my stepdad's ($65K combined). </p></li>
<li><p>When filling out the CSS profile, I put down both of my parents income - $65K. When I did my fafsa, I only put my moms because someone told me the information listed in the above paragraph. My question is, how will my FA be affected since there are different incomes listed on the forms.
Thank you.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>FASFA requires that you put your mother’s income and your step father’s income.</p>
<p>On CSS you will put your mother’s and your step father’s income also. </p>
<p>CSS also requires a NCP (Non Custodial Parent) filing - so your father will need to complete a CSS profile also.</p>
<p>It sounds like you already signed and submitted fafsa and that it was an estimated fafsa. You need to add your stepfather’s financial info, income and assets, to your mom’s and update the fafsa, then you and the parent with a PIN need to sign it again and resubmit it.</p>
<p>Not all CSS schools require the NCP form but most do. Check on your schools.</p>
<p>So even if my stepdad did not include me on his tax return form, I still have to list his income? And yes, I submitted my fafsa & received an EFC of zero, I guess that’s going to change now. </p>
<p>Do you know what would happen if the incomes didn’t match up on the two different forms?</p>
<p>Who claims you as a dependent for taxes has nothing to do with who’s income you need to include on fafsa, whoever told you that was wrong.</p>
<p>If the numbers didn’t match, the CSS schools would catch and question it.</p>
<p>Wow, then I’m definitely going to go back & edit y FAFSA. </p>
<p>One last thing, I applied to UC and CSU schools (I live in California) and when requesting a fee waiver, I only put my moms income, which I’m pretty sure is why I qualified for one. Will the schools say something if the fee waiver income does not match my fafsa income?</p>
<p>Verify if your mother and stepfather are legally married. If so, yes, both incomes have to be on the FAFSA. They are filing as married for 2012, are they not, even if it’s married with separate returns? Unfortunately the extra income may put you over for some things such as the fee waiver. You have to know what the break point is for the waiver to know.</p>
<p>Yes, I just called the FAFSA offices & they told me the same thing. Since they arelegally married, then I have to put down both their incomes, regardless of the dependent/independent status on their tax returns. </p>
<p>I have already obtained the fee waiver, and submitted my applications. I’m just wondering how they’ll react when my income on their application is one third of the income on the fafsa</p>
<p>They may send you a bill. You can ask your counselor. But you know, you are not the first one to make mistakes on these things. Just ask to make sure there are no ramifications.</p>