FAFSA help.

Paying for College
1

<p>If I claim myself as a dependant as opposed to my parents on my tax return. Will that get me more help for Fafsa?</p>

2

<p>Unfortunately, you can't really say whether you are dependent or not. They have 6 or so questions that determine...and most of the time you will be dependent.</p>

3

<p>No. Your dependency status for tax purposes is not neccessarily the same as it is for FAFSA. For instance we cannot claim my son as a dependent for tax purposes because of the amount he earned. But for FAFSA purposes he is a dependent because he answers 'No' to all the dependency questions. You cannot 'choose' to be independent for FAFSA purposes but have to be able to answer no to the questions:</p>

<p><a href="http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/publications/completing_fafsa/2007_2008/ques4.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/publications/completing_fafsa/2007_2008/ques4.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

4

<p>Actually, three different issues.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>"Dependent" for tax purposes.</p></li>
<li><p>"Dependent" vs. "Independent" for financial aid purposes. Not the same as #1 above. Most people are dependents until they are 24, or married, or in the armed forces (a few other circumstances, which swimcatsmom has linked above).</p></li>
<li><p>"Household member" for FAFSA purposes. Not the same as either #1 or #2 above. The general test for kids is whether the parent provided more than half the support for the child.</p></li>
</ol>