FAFSA for Recently Divorced Parents

Hello CC Community,

I am currently in my first year of undergraduate studies. My parents got divorced in the first quarter of my freshman year (couple months ago). In order to file my FAFSA for the 2018-2019 school year, should I use the income and assets of both my parents (since they filed jointly in 2016) and file an appeal for professional judgement EFC appeal, or just use the income and assets in my mother’s name from 2016. My mother is my custodial parent, as I live with only her when I come back from college. My parents filed married, jointly in 2016, but will be filing separately (single for my father, head of household for my mother) for 2017. Any replies would be much appreciated.

For the 2018-2019 FAFSA, you will use 2016 tax year and return information from ONLY your mother…because she is your custodial parent. And only the custodial parent info goes on the fafsa.

You will need to report only Her income, taxes paid, etc. You will need to have your mom’s w2 forms…and maybe even your dad’s so you can figure out what’s what.

In addition, you will not be able to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool. So…have your mom order a tax transcript…and have her w2 information and your dad’s ready…just in case the college asks for verification of her information…and likely they will since you can’t use the DRT.

ASSETS…those get reported as of the day of the filing of the FAFSA…so you will only report your mom’s assets as of the date of filing.

Since they divorced in 2017, there isn’t any spousal or child support for 2016, right?

You will need to redo your mom’s taxes for 2016 (just for purposes of reporting info on taxes, not for the IRS!), using only her info to get the taxes paid. It’s a bit tricky - read here for instructions: https://ifap.ed.gov/fsahandbook/attachments/1718FSAHbkActiveIndex.pdf (page AVG-85).